There may be state or county laws regulating the size of individual snakes, but the state will allow you to keep a snake of any size as long as it's a legal species. My understanding is that the state doesn't use size as an indicator of whether it should be legal, which I think makes sense. You don't want people buying legal 2-foot burms and then dumping them by the side of the road or at the pound when the reach an illegal length. Nor do you want people starving an animal to keep it small.

I'm not sure why burms are ok and retics are not. Basically any animal is evaluated on a three point scale - is it dangerous to people? Is it dangerous to the environment if it gets loose? Is it relatively easy to care for? If a reticulated is more aggressive or harder to care for than a burm, that may explain why they're illegal. I don't keep either, so I can't speak from experience. It may also just be that the people who do our wildlife law aren't that reptile-savvy - they may assume all common pet species are easy to care for and docile, and uncommon pet species aren't, which of course is naive.
-----
0.1 Boa constrictor imperator
2.5 Ball pythons
1.1 Crested Geckos

[ Hide Replies ]

• Snake-friendly states to live in? - 3bSnakes, Wed Nov 7 12:59:00 2007
• RE: Snake-friendly states to live in? - EricIvins, Wed Nov 7 13:56:35 2007
• RE: Snake-friendly states to live in? - LSD, Wed Nov 7 14:20:08 2007
• RE: Snake-friendly states to live in? - liquidleaf, Wed Nov 7 15:18:54 2007
• RE: Snake-friendly states to live in? - liquidleaf, Wed Nov 7 15:20:38 2007
• RE: Snake-friendly states to live in? - JeniNicole83, Wed Nov 7 16:11:55 2007
• Herp Laws website... - bergmantis, Wed Nov 7 16:32:58 2007
• Here are a few you can try - bcijoe, Wed Nov 7 18:10:07 2007
• RE: Snake-friendly states to live in? - AbsoluteApril, Wed Nov 7 17:17:33 2007
• RE: Snake-friendly states to live in? - russianbaby007, Thu Nov 8 11:57:22 2007
• New England - she_geek, Thu Nov 8 12:10:18 2007
• RE: New England.....Question - Pithons, Thu Nov 8 15:48:56 2007
• RE: New England.....Question - she_geek, Fri Nov 9 09:14:53 2007