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Where is the rosy boa legal?

Lichanura trivirgata. Restricted in 6 of the 44 jurisdictions checked. Every entry quotes the rule it comes from.

Alabama: no restriction found for rosy boaAlaska: no restriction found for rosy boaArizona: no restriction found for rosy boaArkansas: not checked yet for rosy boaCalifornia: no restriction found for rosy boaColorado: no restriction found for rosy boaConnecticut: no restriction found for rosy boaDelaware: unclear for rosy boaFlorida: no restriction found for rosy boaGeorgia: not checked yet for rosy boaHawaii: banned for rosy boaIdaho: no restriction found for rosy boaIllinois: no restriction found for rosy boaIndiana: no restriction found for rosy boaIowa: no restriction found for rosy boaKansas: no restriction found for rosy boaKentucky: no restriction found for rosy boaLouisiana: no restriction found for rosy boaMaine: not checked yet for rosy boaMaryland: no restriction found for rosy boaMassachusetts: no restriction found for rosy boaMichigan: not checked yet for rosy boaMinnesota: conditions apply for rosy boaMississippi: no restriction found for rosy boaMissouri: no restriction found for rosy boaMontana: no restriction found for rosy boaNebraska: no restriction found for rosy boaNevada: not checked yet for rosy boaNew Hampshire: no restriction found for rosy boaNew Jersey: permit required for rosy boaNew Mexico: not checked yet for rosy boaNew York: no restriction found for rosy boaNorth Carolina: no restriction found for rosy boaNorth Dakota: no restriction found for rosy boaOhio: no restriction found for rosy boaOklahoma: no restriction found for rosy boaOregon: no restriction found for rosy boaPennsylvania: unclear for rosy boaRhode Island: no restriction found for rosy boaSouth Carolina: no restriction found for rosy boaSouth Dakota: no restriction found for rosy boaTennessee: no restriction found for rosy boaTexas: no restriction found for rosy boaUtah: no restriction found for rosy boaVermont: not checked yet for rosy boaVirginia: no restriction found for rosy boaWashington: no restriction found for rosy boaWest Virginia: no restriction found for rosy boaWisconsin: not checked yet for rosy boaWyoming: no restriction found for rosy boaDistrict of Columbia: no restriction found for rosy boa

Select a state for the rule behind its colour. Alaska, Hawaii and the District of Columbia are drawn out of position so they can be clicked. The counts include New York City, which has rules separate from the surrounding state and so cannot be shaded on a state map. Listed in full below. 43 of 51 states and DC have been read for this animal, so the 8 dotted ones are a gap in our research rather than a finding of no rule.

What the colours mean

  • Banned (2)No legal way to keep one, and no permit to apply for.
  • Permit required (1)Legal, but you need a permit or licence before the animal arrives.
  • Conditions apply (1)Legal without a permit only if a stated condition is met, such as a generation, a size or an indoor-only rule.
  • Unclear (2)The rule genuinely does not resolve for this animal. Ask the agency before relying on it.
  • No restriction found (38)This jurisdiction was read for this animal and nothing in it restricts one.
  • Not checked yet (8)We have not read this jurisdiction for this animal. It is not a clean bill of health, it is a gap.

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Every restriction on the rosy boa

6 of the 44 jurisdictions checked restrict this animal in some way. The rest had no rule we could find.

Hawaii

Banned§ 4-71-6
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.

Hawaii Administrative Rules § 4-71-6, List of Prohibited Animals →

New York City

Banned
any member, or hybrid offspring of the family Boidae, including ... the common or green anaconda and yellow anaconda

Worth flagging clearly: New York City's health code bans the entire family Boidae by name, not just the large species it lists as examples. A rosy boa is a boid. Despite maxing out around 2-3 feet, well short of anything resembling a public-safety-scale constrictor, it reads as banned in NYC on the same "any member of the family" language that catches the green anaconda. This is a real instance of a blanket family-level ban sweeping in a small, harmless species, exactly the kind of non-obvious result worth calling out.

How this rule works: § 161.01 is the list of animals that may not be kept in the five boroughs. It binds regardless of what New York State allows, which is why the city and the state answer differently for several species.

New York City Health Code Article 161, Animals (NYC Department of Health official PDF) →

New Jersey

Permit requiredN.J.A.C. 7:25-4.4/4.5
Boa constrictor - Constrictor constrictor

New Jersey's exempted reptile list names Boa constrictor by exact genus and species, not the family Boidae generally. Rosy boa (genus Lichanura) is a different genus and is not covered by that specific exemption, so a permit is required under 7:25-4.5.

How this rule works: Official NJDEP Fish & Wildlife exempted-species list; 4.5 requires a permit for any exotic reptile not named in 4.4's list, which covers Boa constrictor, garter snakes and ribbon snakes but not corn snake, milk snake, or rosy boa.

N.J.A.C. 7:25-4.4 Exempted Species and 7:25-4.5 Additional Species →

Minnesota

Conditions applyMinn. Stat. § 97A.401, subd. 8
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's breeder-sourcing requirement applies to snakes generally, rosy boa included.

How this rule works: Subd. 8 states a pet snake, lizard, or salamander must come from a permitted breeder or have been possessed before August 1, 2021; hosted on the MN Revisor of Statutes' own site.

Minnesota Statutes 2025, Section 97A.401 →

Delaware

Unclear

Delaware's banned list names pythons and anacondas but not Boidae generally; since the anaconda is itself a boid, whether the family is meant to be caught more broadly is not resolvable from the text as written. This is the same unresolved ambiguity that leaves boa constrictor unclear in Delaware, and nothing in the list specifically distinguishes a small boa from a large one.

How this rule works: An exotic animal is 'ecologically foreign to Delaware, but allowed for possession, sale, and exhibition if a permit has been issued by the Department', covering live wild mammals, hybrids of wild mammals, and live reptiles not native to the state. A prohibited sublist sits on top, barred to everyone outside parks, zoos, aquariums, museums and research facilities. Administered by the State Veterinarian.

7 Del. Admin. Code 3900, Wildlife, exotic animal provisions →

Pennsylvania

Unclear

Rosy boa is not Pennsylvania native, so the Fish and Boat Commission's native-species chapter (58 Pa. Code Ch. 79) does not apply. The Game Commission's Exotic Wildlife Possession Permit framework would be the relevant regime instead, and we could not confirm whether small non-venomous boids are exempted from it. Left unclear rather than guessed.

How this rule works: Official Pennsylvania Code text of the Game Commission's exotic-wildlife permit framework; no dedicated descriptive PGC web page could be confirmed, and the Commission has issued no new permits under this framework since January 1, 2014.

58 Pa. Code Chapter 147, Subchapter N — Exotic Wildlife Possession →

For the full write-up, including the states that get reported wrongly, read the rosy boa legal guide.

Past the legal question? See the rosy boa profile.

How to read this

Two of the shades mean very different things and are worth telling apart. A flat grey state was read for this animal and nothing in it restricts one. A dotted state has not been read for this animal at all. Coverage runs from two jurisdictions to fifty-one depending on the species, so on a less-researched animal most of the map is a gap in our work rather than a finding, and it should not be taken as permission.

Even a flat grey is not a guarantee. It means no restriction was found in the specific body of law checked for that state, which is recorded alongside each jurisdiction. Cities and counties regularly ban animals their state allows, and several states say so in their own rules.

Hatched grey means the rule genuinely does not resolve. Usually a definition arguably reaches the animal without naming it, and the honest answer is to ask the agency rather than to guess. Those entries are marked unclear on purpose rather than being rounded to a yes or a no.

Every entry links to the regulation it came from. None of this is legal advice, laws change without much notice, and the agency that issues the permit is always the last word. For the federal layer and how state schemes are structured, see the exotic pet legal hub.