The rosy boa has three subspecies: (1) the desert rosy boa, found in north and southeastern Southern California and southwestern Arizona; (2) the coastal rosy boa, found in southwestern Southern California and northwestern Baja California; and (3) the Mexican rosy boa, found in extreme southern Arizona and along the eastern edge of the Gulf of California in Mexico.
They are wildly popular as pets in Southern Californa because they are docile, they eat mice readily (which can be purchased at pet stores), they are slow moving and very unthreatening looking, as far as snakes go. They range from about 24 to 42 inches in length, have a thick body and small head, not much larger than the neck, and three broad longitudinal stripes. The primary difference between the coastal rosy boa and the desert rosy boa, is that the stripes on the desert rosy boa are pretty solid and the stripe color is not present, or is at least less significant, between the stripes. The coastal rosy boa usually has scales with the stripe color scattered significantly between the stripes.
The rosy boas I've seen in our area tend to be intergrade, a little bit between the coastal and the desert rosy, with a tendency toward the coastal characteristics. The rosy below was caught in our neighbor's driveway on October 2, 1993.




GREAT memories. Uh huh.
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