Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was doing a google image search for arizona rosys... the next step after my california localities i reckon.

Ended up navigating to a thread about rosys on the Arizona Herpetological Association's page

WOW! I didn't know that all rosys are vicious biters, and breeders are just full of it when they tell buyers what locality they are.

What a bunch of dingleberries! I know that the localities are sometimes misrepresented, mixed up etc. And there are some BS'ers everywhere... and that every breeder isn't mega compulsive. But the consensus seemed to be that rosy breeders are just BS artists and that rosies have a false reputation for being docile.

I've had about 20 rosies past and present. Yes, a couple of the juveniles nipped at me- but that passed. I've had one adult chomp me, but I smelled like a mouse

It just pissed me of that these AHA'ers were slaggin' rosys and it seems to be a trendy thing to do among them

Rich

PS My brother-in-law is moving out near kingman AZ. I will be visiting a lot and sleeping all day! Walking distance for herp trails and roads! yeeeaahaa

I like to chime in any thim the mud slinging starts so here I am. Since there is snow this time of year all I have is snowballs. Thought I would tell a true story involving myself. I had had a glass of wine and decided to admire my collection. I never play with the hots but thought there would be no harm in looking at one of my prised exact local mutts. I opened the drawer looked in and got too close. The Rosy nailed my nose and proceded to coil up around my now hurting nose. It is amazing how such a small snake has such sharp teeth! It took forever to pry it loose.

Dear Pervito

I don’t know where you get off making fun of Fat, Beer Drinking Rosy Breeders. How else do you expect us to cope with the huge financial loss that comes with the hobby not to mention the pain associated with the attitude stricken creatures themselves? As far as locality, who cares, they all look like ugly earthworms anyway. Do you really care where they are from?

I did not go and read the AHA forum but I can tell you from my experience keeping rosys for many years. Almost all my captive born baby locales where viscious. Only the wildcaught ones were not. When purchasing rosys that are sub-adults to adults I always buy the ones that bite because it is a feeding response and a sign the boa is a healthy feeder. The ones that show little interest in chomping down on my skin I will usually pass up. It it chomps down thats a good one in my book.

Amen

My experience is nowhere as extensive as yours, but mirrors it. Wild caught captives generally do not bite. Not even the youngsters. But every CB one I have ever had except for one bit the snot out of me on a very regular basis, even as adults and after feeding!. I suppose with lots of handling one could do away with that behavior. The problem is that many snake keepers keep too many snakes to deal with them that way.

In my experience, none of the wild caught rosy boas that I have found in the wild were biters when found. They were all very docile as is the typical description of rosy boas. All of the captive bred rosy boas that I have produced started out kind of docile when first born, and gradually graduated into biters. As has been said previously, they are not biting to be mean, but as a feeding response.

It is fairly common knowledge, at least to the group of people that I know that work with rosy boas, that the captive bred rosies and even rosy boas that were wild caught that have been in captivity for a long period of time, end up being aggressive hand killers. Now don't get me wrong, that doesn't stop us from keeping rosy boas, but it is still the truth. Some people that only keep a few rosies and handle them very regularly have claimed to have different experiences and maybe one or two of them will chime in.

As far as all of the breeders of rosies being con artists and lying about the locales, I would have to disagree about that. Rosy boa breeders, at least the majority of them, are all into locales. In many cases, it is easy to tell if someone is lying about the locale as well. But then again, I am an Arizona resident, so many of the rosy breeders that I know have actually field collected rosy boas in Arizona and California and are very much into the locales and are honest in representing which locales their animals have come from if they sell or give away the offspring.

Wow this is new to me. I have a 1 year old coastal rosey and he is as docile as any snake I've ever had. You guys have me worried that he will turn into a monster. I'll make sure I'm careful about letting people handle him.
btw he has an excellent feeding response he feeds from tongs or by just leaving the fuzzy rat in his feeding container.

this is all new news to me.

Just in case it wasn't clear I was just poking fun at someone from the last post. One did however coil up around my nose teeth first. Some bite some do not but as a breeder I do not handle my snakes except to clean out their cage so I am sure your pet will always be fairly nice....Bill

I have dozens of Rosies... and yes they all bite... People laugh when I tell them I use a small snake hook to move them.
I don't touch the things with bare hands at all, as everyone is just ready to pounce each and every time I open the tray.... Worse than just biting they seem to enjoy human flesh and can be very hard to get off once they get a hold..
but I still love them... I breed lots of species of snakes and have done so over 26 years... You know what??.. SNAKES BITE!! period... Just about everything I've ever worked with has bitten me with only one exception.. rubber boas, but then give them time, I've only worked with a couple for a few years... They'll get me too eventually
Thank Darwin they aren't Retic size

I agree with all of you. I think the most important thing to emphasize is that if you don't want your snake/rosy to develop into a agressive feeding machine that will strike at the first movement it sees, is to handle your animals regularly. With many breeders, myself included, we usually have too many animals to devote enough time to inorder to prevent the feed response from developing. Once it develops, however, it is very difficult to break. Personally, although I'd rather they didn't bite (as it hurts and all), it doesn't bother me enough to stop me from keeping and breeding these beautiful and fascinating creatures. And even if they do bite, they are still relatively harmless. I believe that anyone can prevent the feed response from developing, and even break it once it does, if they devote enough handling time.

All junkies need a coachwhip just for the occasional adrenaline rush.

Dem rosys have sum big teeth azz well. When dey bite down it draws some blood compard to my normal milks n' kings.

i was a member of that forum when i lived in AZ. not to be rude, but i really, really disliked most of them. they're all know-it-alls. i would go somewhere else for info. but that's just me.