Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake — Fact Sheet

Crotalus willardi · Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• One adult: minimum 120 x 60 x 75 cm.
• Locked primary enclosure in a restricted escape-resistant room.
• Two positive-lock shifts; protected-contact service only.
• 10-15 cm compactable soil with dry leaf litter; paper during quarantine.
• Never use wild-collected habitat material; avoid hidden voids and neonate gaps.

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Tight warm and cool refuges; local humid refuge during shed.
• Anchored flat rock, cork and low stable ledges.
• Visual cover without losing a complete animal count.
• Stable water bowl through protected access.
• Visible subspecies, mountain-range, permit and animal-count records.

💡 Lighting

• Bright daylight; locality-based 10-14-hour seasonal photoperiod.
• Measured UVB around Ferguson Zone 2 recommended.
• Complete shade and dark shift at all times.
• Lamps, cables and probes outside containment or behind locked guards.
• Replace lamps by measured output and manufacturer schedule.

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: 27-30 °C

• Warm zone: 20-25 °C

• Cool zone: 16-20 °C

• Night: 12-18 °C

• Use guarded thermostatic overhead heat with independent measurements.

• Avoid prolonged lowland-desert heat; preserve a truly cool refuge.

💧 Humidity & water

• General humidity: 50-70% with strong ventilation and a dry surface.
• Shed retreat: 70-80%, local and cool.
• Clean stable water bowl through protected access.
• Investigate condensation, wet belly scales or persistent soaking.

🐁 Diet

Feed routinely:

• Appropriately sized frozen-thawed mice.
• Adults every 14-21 days; juveniles every 7-10 days.

In moderation:

• Larger meals only when weight and body condition justify them.

Avoid:

• Live rodents, oversized meals, obesity and moving to an open feeding tub.

Supplements:

• None for complete whole prey.

💤 Brumation

• Locality-dependent breeding procedure, not routine care.
• Suitable healthy, established, fasted adults: approximately 5-10 °C.
• Northern and southern subspecies require different schedules.
• Never cool juveniles, new arrivals, thin, dehydrated, gravid or ill animals.
• Use redundant monitoring and veterinary oversight.

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Frantic escape behaviour, lethargy or prolonged soaking → possible overheating.
• Wheeze, bubbles, open mouth or raised head → respiratory disease.
• Wet, red or blistered belly scales → moisture or airflow failure.
• Retained shed → hydration, humidity, mites or disease problem.
• Regurgitation or obesity → prey, temperature or feeding interval problem.
• Any bite → immediate emergency care; no cutting, suction, ice, shock, massage or tourniquet.

Shift and lock the snake before veterinary assessment; never attempt hands-on home treatment.