Choosing a Sand Boa

There are two questions to answer in choosing a sand boa:

• Wild-caught or captive born
• Which species is right for me?

Wild-caught vs. Captive Born

The first issue when choosing a Sand Boa (or any other herp) is whether to get a captive born baby or a wild caught adult or subadult.   Aside from the personality issues (wild caught snakes can have unpredictable temperaments) there is the issue of general overall health.   You can usually assume a captive born snake will be free of parasites, scars, and diseases. This assumption cannot be made about wild caught animals.

Another argument made for buying wild caught adults or subadults is that you don't have to wait for them to grow up to breed them and you will get offspring sooner.   This is NOT true.   Most people experienced with Boid snakes have found that it usually takes 4-5 years for a captive import to settle down to be a predictable breeder.   In that period, you can raise and breed a captive born snake.   The following figure illustrates this point.

These are the monthly weights of two pairs of Eryx miliaris.   One pair was captive born and the other were imported as subadults.   The sharp dips in the weights of the captive born female represent births.   The wild caught snakes never did reproduce during this three and one-half year period.   The flat line at the beginning of the graph represents the difficulty I had getting these cb snakes to eat at first.   Once they started however, you can see how quickly they grew.   Notice also that the males did not grow significantly after reaching sexual maturity.   For more information on the differences in growth rates, see the breeding page.

Which species is right for me?

I answer a lot of email from people wanting to know which species of Sand Boa would be the best for them to start out with.   My answer is always that it depends on a lot of different things.   The table further down this page compares erycine species for the following important considerations:

• Coloration

while beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder, some species have brighter colors than others

• Temperament

Some species are always docile

others are more unpredictable and prone to individual "personality quirks"

• Female Size

I include here the average size of an adult female. Males are usually much smaller

• Feeding

what the adults will eat in captivity

• Feeding Newborns

what newborns will eat in captivity and how easy it is to get them started

• Availability

availability of captive born snakes here in the US

• Price

general price range for captive born babies in the USA

low = US$75 or less

medium = US$76 to US$124

high = US$125 and higher

The following table is intended to compare these characteristics for each species of snake covered on this page.

Species	Color	Temperament	Female Size	Feeding	feeding newborns	availability	price
colubrinus	black on orange/yellow	usually docile- a few are snappy	30 inches	mice	pink mice - easy	abundant	low
conicus	gray/yellow/brown	docile to snappy	30 inches	mice	pink mice - easy	common	low
elegans	gray/white	unknown	18 inches	fuzzy mice	unknown	none?	???
jaculus	brown on tan	usually docile	24 inches	fuzzy mice	pink mice -tricky	uncommon	low
jayakari	black on orange/yellow	docile	16 inches	pinkies	small lizards?	uncommon	high
johnii	brown	docile	40+ inches	mice or small rats	pink mice - easy	common	medium
miliaris	brown on tan	docile (aggressive feeding response)	30 inches	hopper mice	pink mice - fair	uncommon	low
muelleri	black on orange/yellow	docile	24 inches	fuzzy mice		limited	high
somalicus	brown on tan	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	none	???
tataricus	brown on tan	usually docile	40 inches	mice or small rats	pink mice -fair	uncommon	low
Lichanura	brown/pink/orange on white/gray	docile	40 + inches	mice +	pink mice -easy	abundant	low to high
Charina	brown	docile	30 inches	small mice	pink mice -fair	uncommon	low to medium
Calabaria	pink on brown	docile	40 inches	small mice or rats	pink mice -easy	rare	high

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