Where is the rosy boa legal?

Any species of wildlife that is not specifically listed in Chapter W-11 as Domestic or Unregulated or in Chapter W-07 as Appendix A or Appendix B, the species is regulated wildlife and a CPW license is required. CPW will not issue a license for private possession (eg pet) of regulated wildlife.

Boidae is on Appendix A, but the listing covers only snakes native only to the tropical and subtropical region, and the rosy boa is a southwestern United States and Baja animal ranging north of the 26 degree line in § 700(G). CPW's herpetofauna list records Lichanura trivirgata against Appendix A, A, 3 with the finding "native range is outside tropical/subtropical", and files the rubber boa the same way, against Boa constrictor, the rainbow boas and the sand boas, which clear it. So the family listing that makes the boa constrictor legal in Colorado does not carry the rosy boa, and this entry read legal until the 1 May 2026 rewrite added that test.

How this rule works: CPW's own page, with four downloadable lists, herpetofauna, mammals, birds, and fish and marine animals, each row giving a species and the regulation that decides it: Domestic, Unregulated, Appendix A or B, Appendix C, Regulated or Prohibited. Updated 1 May 2026. Not exhaustive, and CPW takes questions on unlisted species by email. This is the agency applying its own rule, which matters most where Appendix A turns on whether a species is native only to the tropics.

Serpentes (all species)

Hawaii bans the entire snake suborder by name, size and family irrelevant.

How this rule works: Also carries the default rule: introduction is 'prohibited except for those animals on the lists' incorporated in § 4-71-6.5.

Reptiles (Reptilia). All Helodermatidae ...; all front-fanged venomous snakes, even if devenomized ...; all venomous, mid-or rear-fanged, Duvernoy-glanded members of the family Colubridae, even if devenomized; any member, or hybrid offspring of the family Boidae, including, but not limited to, the common or green anaconda and yellow anaconda; any member of the family Pythonidae, including, but not limited to, the African rock python, Indian or Burmese python, Amethystine or scrub python; any member of the family Varanidae, including the white throated monitor, Bosc's or African savannah monitor, Komodo monitor or dragon, Nile monitor, crocodile monitor, water monitor, Bornean earless monitor; any member of the family Iguanidae, including the green or common iguana; any member of the family teiidae, including, but not limited to, the golden, common, or black and white tegu; all members of the family Chelydridae, including snapping turtle and alligator snapping turtle; all turtles and tortoises with a carapace length of less than four (4) inches; and all members of the order Crocodylia ...

A small desert boid, and the clause is written to the family, so a two-foot rosy boa is prohibited on the same words that reach a green anaconda. § 161.01(d) is worth knowing alongside the prohibition: a prohibited animal may be seized by any authorized city employee, the owner has three business days to request a hearing, and with the Department's written consent the animal may be removed to a jurisdiction where it is not prohibited. That last provision is the closest thing to relief in the article.

How this rule works: A city rule that is stricter than any state on this map, and it works in three layers. It opens with a standard rather than a list, deeming a wild animal to be "any animal which is naturally inclined to do harm and capable of inflicting harm upon human beings". It then adds, at (b)(ii), any wildlife protected or endangered under federal, STATE or local law, which imports New York State's protected wildlife scheme into the city wholesale. And it closes with 24 numbered clauses that work mostly by family: all cats other than Felis catus and their hybrids, all dogs other than Canis familiaris, all Mustelidae including the ferret by name, all squirrels, all marsupials, all large rodents, all Boidae, all Pythonidae, all Varanidae, all Iguanidae, all teiidae, all Chelydridae, all venomous spiders including the tarantula by name, and all turtles under four inches. § 161.01(c) is the short answer to what is left: gerbil, hamster, guinea pig, domesticated rabbit, and small birds such as parakeet, parrot, canary and finch.

Unless specifically exempt from the permitting requirement as presented in regulation 6.1, all persons who would own or have custody of an exotic animal must first obtain a permit issued by the Department.

Resolved from unclear. The question was whether Delaware's list reached Boidae generally, and the answer is that the list in question is a breeding restriction on Sales Permit holders at 7.5.2.10, not a possession ban, and the only outright refusals are the gila monster, beaded lizard and komodo dragon. The rosy boa is simply a non-native reptile that no exemption covers, so an Individual permit is required. The permit is a $25 Individual permit from the Department of Agriculture, issued where possession will be in the public interest, so this is a real route rather than a closed door.

How this rule works: The regulation that actually decides Delaware, and it is much narrower than the list circulating in secondary sources. § 7201 requires a permit before anyone brings in, possesses, sells or exhibits a live wild mammal, a hybrid of a wild mammal, or a live reptile not native to Delaware, and bans non-native venomous snakes outright with no permit available. Regulation 6.1 then exempts a named list of pets from the permit entirely, and 6.2 says everything else needs one. The only species the State Veterinarian may not permit at all are at 4.7: gila monsters, beaded lizards and komodo dragons. Pythons, anacondas and boas appear only at 7.5.2.10, a restriction on what Sales Permit holders may breed, not a possession ban. The Delaware regulations site is a single-page app that serves no text to a fetcher, so this was read from a full reproduction and cross-checked against the Department of Agriculture's own exotic animals page.

Reptiles: ... iii. Bosas- Family Boidae (other than Boa Constrictors)

The rosy boa is answered by name on the 4.3 permit list rather than by the catch-all. The entry reads "Bosas- Family Boidae (other than Boa Constrictors)", a typo for boas, and the parenthesis is doing the real work. The list is written by family as often as by species, and 4.3 is open-ended, "include, but are not limited to", so being on it settles the permit question but not being on it settles nothing. The permit is the individual hobby permit at 4.6(a)1, subject to the general possession criteria at 4.7. The carve-out is the whole point of the line: the boa constrictor is exempt by name at 4.4(a)3.iii, so 4.3 has to exclude it when it takes the rest of the family. Lichanura trivirgata is in that rest.

How this rule works: The Division's handout of the 4.3 permit list. It is open-ended, 'include, but are not limited to', and works by family as often as by species, so Pythonidae, Boidae, Lampropeltis, Varanus, Scincidae and Gekkonidae each answer several pet species at once.

No person shall transport into or have in his possession within this state any live wildlife or viable eggs thereof from without the state, except as authorized by an importation permit issued by the director

West Virginia’s importation section is the rule the rest of this column was written without, and it changes the answer for every exotic reptile and amphibian in it. W. Va. Code § 20-1-2 builds wildlife out of wild birds, wild animals, game and fur-bearing animals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans and all forms of aquatic life used as fish bait. The reptile and amphibian clause carries no nativity qualifier and no captive-bred carve-out, so a pet reptile or amphibian bought from an out-of-state breeder is live wildlife from without the state. A rosy boa is a reptile and a species of the American southwest and Baja California, so it is wildlife from without the state on any route into West Virginia. § 20-2-13 then bars both bringing that animal in and having it in possession within the state except under an importation permit from the director, and the permit is discretionary: the director may issue it, fix its terms and revoke it at his pleasure. How firm this is, both ways. § 20-2-4(a) independently makes it unlawful to take, obtain, purchase, possess or maintain in captivity any live wildlife except as the chapter or a rule provides, and § 20-2-4(b) says wildlife lawfully taken outside of this state is subject to the same laws and rules as wildlife taken within it, which closes the argument that an out-of-state origin puts the animal outside the chapter before it is made. Against that, the section is headed importation and certification and the body of it is disease control, fish pathologist certificates and inspection of imported shipments, with the only penalty clause written for coyotes. Nothing in Title 58 implements § 20-2-13 for anything but aquaculture, and WVDNR publishes no application for an importation permit. So this is a statutory permit requirement that is real on paper with its machinery not visibly in place, which is the same shape as the Minnesota breeder condition and is recorded the same way. Neither of West Virginia’s two species lists bars this animal. W. Va. C.S.R. § 74-1-3, the dangerous wild animal list adopted 5 April 2022, is a mammal list plus the Komodo dragon. W. Va. C.S.R. § 58-73 reaches native West Virginia reptiles and amphibians only.

How this rule works: West Virginia splits its animals by two definitions in one section. Wildlife takes in reptiles, amphibians, mollusks and crustaceans with no nativity limit and no terrestrial arthropod at all. Wild animals means all mammals native to the State of West Virginia, which is the phrase that decides every mammal here. § 20-2-4 bars possessing either except as the chapter or a rule provides, and § 20-2-51 is the only pet route, a two dollar permit from the director.

Rosy Boa Lichanur trivirgata

Named by species, with the genus misprinted as Lichanur for Lichanura. The whole Reptilia section of the list sits under the heading "Captive Bred Origin Only", which is the condition on the clearance: a wild-caught animal of the same species is not unrestricted and falls back to § 7.06(4), under which an uncategorised animal may not be possessed at all. A species-level entry carries no asterisk, so the conservation-status filter that qualifies the genus entries does not apply, and Lichanura trivirgata is IUCN Least Concern in any event.

How this rule works: The list 12 M.R.S. § 12152(1-A) requires the department to maintain and 09-137 CMR ch. 7 § 7.06(1) describes: species needing no importation, exhibition, propagation, research or possession permit, which pet shops may also trade. Dated 11 August 2017 on every page, and this is the version IFW still serves. Three headings do most of the work: Reptilia, Serpentes and Testudines each carry "Captive Bred Origin Only", and an asterisk on an entry removes anything on the USFWS injurious or threatened and endangered lists, in CITES Appendix I, or on the IUCN Red List as Endangered, Critically Endangered or Extinct in the Wild.

The commissioner must prescribe conditions and may issue permits to breed, propagate, and sell snakes, lizards, and salamanders. A snake, lizard, or salamander that is obtained from a permitted breeder or that was possessed before August 1, 2021, may be possessed as a pet.

Minnesota gets here in three steps, and the surprise is that none of them turns on the species being native. Section 97A.015, subd. 55 defines wild animals as creatures wild by nature and includes reptiles, with no geographic limit. Subd. 39 makes snakes, lizards and salamanders protected wild animals as whole categories. Section 97A.501, subd. 1 then bars possessing a protected wild animal unless the game and fish laws allow it, and this subdivision is the allowance. A rosy boa is a snake, so it needs to have come from a permitted breeder or to have been held before 1 August 2021. Two things to know about how firm this is. The statute says the commissioner "must" prescribe conditions, but there is no snake, lizard or salamander breeder permit on the DNR's permits page, Minnesota Rules chapter 6256 covers only frogs and turtles, and no rule chapter implements the subdivision. And the DNR's own pet-trade page describes the change as reaching "wild collected Minnesota snakes, lizards, and/or salamanders", which is narrower than the statute's words and does not mention the breeder permit at all. So the condition is real on paper and its machinery is not visibly in place.

How this rule works: Subd. 8, added in 2021, is the pet reptile rule: the commissioner must prescribe conditions and may issue breeder permits, and a snake, lizard or salamander is possessable as a pet if it came from a permitted breeder or was held before 1 August 2021. Subd. 3 is the older, broader route, allowing special permits without a fee to possess wild animals as pets.

(b) Snake Rosy Boa.................................. Lichanura orcutti

The condition is which rosy boa, and it turns on a species split most keepers have never heard of. Nevada classifies Lichanura orcutti, the northern three-lined rosy boa, as protected, and NAC 503.093 bars possessing protected wildlife without a licence or permit from the Department. Lichanura trivirgata, the Mexican rosy boa that the pet trade mostly sells, was separated from orcutti and is not indigenous to Nevada, which puts it inside the clearance for nonvenomous nonindigenous reptiles at NAC 503.140(1)(aa). So the same common name lands on either side of the line depending on the animal's actual identity and provenance. Nevada leaves county and city ordinances untouched, and Clark County, Las Vegas and Henderson are all stricter than the state, so check the municipality before the state.

How this rule works: Nevada Legislature's administrative code chapter defining unprotected reptiles as any species not classified protected, sensitive, threatened, or endangered.