Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased a rosy boa at the Tucson reptile show few weeks ago. I was told is a female about 2 yrs old. he said she was eating live but would eat frozen thawed. I fed her a ft hopper. she ait it no problem. I thought she digested it but found a little remains in her cage. so I thought maybe a live would be better. I waited a week to ten days and fed her a live hopper. she ate it no problem. again about week later there was the obvious remains of the mouse. I'm like...ok..must be to big for her. so I waited again and then fed her a ft fuzzy mouse about 5 days ago. AGAIN she barffed up the remains. its like the internal stuff of the mice are digesting but the rest isn't. she's active. I have her in a 5 gallon talk with a light on during the day for a heat source. what's going on with" coco" ? she has brown strips. I've had lots of snakes from corns, milks, redtail boa, jcp, but never had a rosy boa. any ideas? ??

The reason is the heat source: lights are generally not effective heaters for rosy boas. The air may be warm, but the ground where much of the snake's mass is in contact with may be conducting heat away from the snake. It is like being in a warm room but lying on a cold floor (and being cold-blooded at that). Rosies need warm objects - e.g. the ground, a warm crevice, etc.

You have 2 choices:
1) Use an undertank heat pad with a thermostat. I use soft pine shavings for bedding. The crevices between the chips hold heat very well, and the rosy will nestle in the shavings better than aspen or anything else.

or
2) Use a ceramic heat emitter (CHE). Put enough bedding in the tank so that the heat emitter surface is about 6-7 inches from the bedding. Of course use a temp controller with probe on the bedding below the heater and set for 85. CHE's are way more effective than lights. They direct heat down, and the wavelength of the energy is more like that of a heat pad.

Rosies will regurgitate far sooner than kings and corns and such. Rosies do not need high temps persay - 85 deg hotspot is fine for regular maintenance, but they need that heat available on their bodies, not in the air.

Heating the snake rather than the air will fix the problem.

Thanks for the help. I got a night heat light that is helping. The other items are not in budget. I'm also feeding smaller food item. No regurging!

Glad it worked out!

Here is a very simple yet effective neonate to small rosy setup. For a larger rosy, use a larger box. I use Cambro polycarbonate food pans from Smart & Final.

Soft pine shavings, some newspaper for a hide, and some heat tape. Very minimal yet provides all they need in terms of being able to thermoregulate while hidden.

I only have the water bowl in there for about 1 day per week.