Rock rattlesnake — Fact Sheet

Crotalus lepidus · Rock rattlesnake

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• Minimum adult space: 120 x 60 x 75 cm in a restricted, secondarily contained room.
• Fit two positively lockable shift hides, a protected service port and neonate-proof locks, vents and tracks.
• Use 5-8 cm low-dust mineral soil, firmly supported stone-like shelves and tight but fully inspectable retreats.
• Never free-handle or reach into a crevice. Two trained adults attend every primary opening.

💡 Lighting and 🌡️ temperature

• Bright visible light for 10-14 hours; optional measured Ferguson Zone 1 UVB with full shade.
• Basking surface: 29-32°C
• Ambient: 22-27°C
• Cool retreat: 18-22°C
• Night: 14-20°C
• Brumation at 8-14°C is only for healthy, established, locality-documented adults under a specialist plan.

💧 Humidity and water

• Ambient 35-55% with strong ventilation; one ventilated shedding retreat at 55-70%.
• Keep most surfaces dry and provide a stable bowl of fresh water through protected access.

🐁 Feeding

• Offer appropriately small frozen-thawed rodents every 14-21 days, adjusted to weight and condition.
• Do not use live prey or routine supplements with whole vertebrate prey.
• Lock the snake into a shift before retrieving refused food.

🩺 Health and emergency warnings

• Watch for obesity, retained shed, dehydration, wheezing, mouth lesions, mites, regurgitation, burns and injuries from unstable décor.
• A bite is a hospital emergency. Call emergency services/poison control; keep still, remove constricting items and support the limb neutrally.
• No tourniquet, cutting, suction, ice, shock, massage or home antivenom. Maintain written bite and escape plans before acquisition.