Reptile & Amphibian Forums

can a kenyan sand boa eat another larger kenyan sand boa..?

i am missing my larger sand boa... the cage was secured and is a tall one too... so i do not think she could have escaped, but i am looking in the house...

i am beside myself over this...
-----
Cilene
2 kenyan sand boas
2 redtail boa
2 redfoot tortoises
3 box turtles (florida, eastern, ornate)
2 sulcata tortoises

I've heard of some spotted cases of cannibalism, think they were all same size or larger eating smaller. How recently do you think it happened? If it ate a "meal" that large, you'd surely know it if you last saw the larger one within the past few days.

It could happen. Does the other one look fat?

-Chris
-----
Christopher E. Smith
Contact
Captive Bred Herps
Wildlife Research & Consulting Services, LLC

I had a litter of kenyans together for a while...I forget their age, but one day I went in there to check on them and noticed one looked odd.
By odd I mean that it "lumpy" for lack of a better word. I picked it up to look it over and when I turned it to look at its belly I found my answer...It had eaten one of its siblings...Its belly was stretched so thin I could see the pattern of the eaten kenyan.
I took pics of it, but the camera I had at the time sucked so the pics didn't turn out was well as I'd have liked, but I had visible proof that they could consume a meal at least their own size...if memory serves the kenyan was able to survive its huge meal.

i feed every 7-10 days.. as soon as i see they have pooped, feed and clean cages.. that was what i was doing last night..

Speckles sort of looks like she ate recently.. but not stretched beyond belief.. her back half of her body looks full, like a feeding.. but not her front half..

i did not feed speckles last night.. as i was looking all over for Freckles...

they are in a ten gal old fashion tank, the ones with a slate bottom.. the screen lids fits very snug.. i have to pry it off when i need to get into the tank.. so i do not think Freckles escaped..

thank you all
-----
Cilene
2 kenyan sand boas
2 redtail boa
2 redfoot tortoises
3 box turtles (florida, eastern, ornate)
2 sulcata tortoises

They can and will eat each other, but its pretty rare. Make sure you always seperate to feed and do not put them back together until the feeding response is reduced.

I've kept kenyans in colonies since 1998, and never had an incident with siblings or adults. I recently had an incident where a male killed 1 newborn baby and was constricting another one, but he didn't eat any to my knowledge.

If you are going to keep several snakes, I'd invest in a rack system. It makes everything much easier. I'm slowly converting all my snakes over to racks after 12 years of keeping colonies. It is just so much easier to keep accurate feeding/shedding records. Its easier to get some snakes to eat that way also.
-----
Travis Rose
0.1 Normal Kenyan
2.3 High Orange Kenyans
0.2 High Orange Albino Kenyans
0.1 Anery Kenyan
1.2 High White Anery Kenyans
1.1 Yellow Snow Kenyan
0.1 Paradox Snow Kenyan
0.1 Paradox Albino Kenyan
2.3 Rough Scale Sand Boas
1.2 Indian sand boas
X.X Nervous Rats
X.X Paranoid Mice
0.3 Dogs
0.2 Cats
X.X Fish
0.1 Very understanding wife
2.0 Future Snake Lovers

>>They can and will eat each other, but its pretty rare. Make sure you always seperate to feed and do not put them back together until the feeding response is reduced.
>>

i do feed in separate feeding containers.. always have, that ius how i was taught..

>>If you are going to keep several snakes, I'd invest in a rack system. It makes everything much easier. I'm slowly converting all my snakes over to racks after 12 years of keeping colonies. It is just so much easier to keep accurate feeding/shedding records. Its easier to get some snakes to eat that way also.
>>-----

these are the only 2 snakes i have kept together.. they were fairly easy to ID from eat other.. each snake has their own record sheet that i log poops, sheds, feedings, weights, injury, etc...

thank you..

i will be feeding today.. we will see if Speckles accepts or refuses..
-----
Cilene
2 kenyan sand boas
2 redtail boa
2 redfoot tortoises
3 box turtles (florida, eastern, ornate)
2 sulcata tortoises

>>i will be feeding today.. we will see if Speckles accepts or refuses..
>>-----

Speckles ate 2 fuzzy mice.. so now i am clueless as to what happened to Freckles...
-----
Cilene
2 kenyan sand boas
2 redtail boa
2 redfoot tortoises
3 box turtles (florida, eastern, ornate)
2 sulcata tortoises

Its always possible that the other snake got out. I've seen some amazing escapes.

I had a 30 inch adult female kenyan squeeze through the floor vents. I think normal spacing on a floor vent is what? 1/2 inch? She ate small rats....had about 4X the girth of that vent.

Also had 2 roughscales dissapear for 6 months before i found them. They were living under my house in the crawl space. My mom (who is scared of snakes) was not happy to find out she was lying on top of one. Didn't go over well. At all.

Sounds like you are doing everything right husbandry wise. Good luck.

-----
Travis Rose
0.1 Normal Kenyan
2.3 High Orange Kenyans
0.2 High Orange Albino Kenyans
0.1 Anery Kenyan
1.2 High White Anery Kenyans
1.1 Yellow Snow Kenyan
0.1 Paradox Snow Kenyan
0.1 Paradox Albino Kenyan
2.3 Rough Scale Sand Boas
1.2 Indian sand boas
X.X Nervous Rats
X.X Paranoid Mice
0.3 Dogs
0.2 Cats
X.X Fish
0.1 Very understanding wife
2.0 Future Snake Lovers

WOW...

i am certianly not giving up.. we household is on the look out.. i have put out small bowls of water every where and tonight i will put one f/t fuzzy mouse out for her.. as it is time for her to eat..
-----
Cilene
2 kenyan sand boas
2 redtail boa
2 redfoot tortoises
3 box turtles (florida, eastern, ornate)
2 sulcata tortoises

If you have floor vents, I would seriously consider going through them with a fine tooth comb. Their instinct will push them to go down, down, down if they can. I've had to go into basement and undo the floor vents 3 times looking for kenyans in the last 5 years. Found them there every time.
-----
Travis Rose
0.1 Normal Kenyan
2.3 High Orange Kenyans
0.2 High Orange Albino Kenyans
0.1 Anery Kenyan
1.2 High White Anery Kenyans
1.1 Yellow Snow Kenyan
0.1 Paradox Snow Kenyan
0.1 Paradox Albino Kenyan
2.3 Rough Scale Sand Boas
1.2 Indian sand boas
X.X Nervous Rats
X.X Paranoid Mice
0.3 Dogs
0.2 Cats
X.X Fish
0.1 Very understanding wife
2.0 Future Snake Lovers

i miss floor vents... we now live in sw fl.. no basements here..
but we are still looking...
we are not giving up hope..

>>If you have floor vents, I would seriously consider going through them with a fine tooth comb. Their instinct will push them to go down, down, down if they can. I've had to go into basement and undo the floor vents 3 times looking for kenyans in the last 5 years. Found them there every time.
>>-----
-----
Cilene
2 kenyan sand boas
2 redtail boa
2 redfoot tortoises
3 box turtles (florida, eastern, ornate)
2 sulcata tortoises

It is also easier to tell who the father is of a litter if you keep them in racks.......
-----
Mark Huntley
Sand Boa Morphs

Sand Boa's
2.1 Rufescens
6.6 Albinos
0.1 Hypo Albino
1.1 Dodoma
2.0 Nuclear Meltdown
0.1 Flame
10.22.14 Normal (orange)
7.16 Anery
5.4 Snow
2.2 Yellow Snow
0.1 Splash Albino
1.0 Splash Anery
1.0 Orange Stripe Het Anery
3.0 High Orange Stripe
1.0 Yellow Stripe
1.3 High Orange Tiger
2.3 High Orange
1.0 Snow Paradoxes
0.1 Albino Paradoxes
1.1 Javelin Sand Boas
2.1 Rough Scales
1.1 Indian Sunsets F3

Western Hognose
15.6 Normal Hogs
6.2 Green Phase
1.2 Red Phase

2.1 Boston Terriers
0.2 Sooners
1.3 Rhode Island Reds
0.3 Barred Rocks
0.2 Range Hens
0.1 Favorite Wives
1.1 On the fence in-laws
2.1 Rug Rats

CHECK OUT MY NEW KENYAN SAND BOA BLOG
http://sandboamorphs.blogspot.com/

WWW.SANDBOAMORPHS.COM

>>It is also easier to tell who the father is of a litter if you keep them in racks.......
>>-----

yes i agree it is.. but i am not a breeder.. i leave that to you all.. i am just a lover of boas.. only have 4, hubby says no more..

-----
Cilene
2 kenyan sand boas
2 redtail boa
2 redfoot tortoises
3 box turtles (florida, eastern, ornate)
2 sulcata tortoises

>>only have 4, hubby says no more..

Don't give up hope on that either!
-----
1.0 Albino Kenyan Sand Boa
0.1 Anery Kenyan Sand Boa
0.1 Stripe Kenyan Sand Boa

1.0 normal Ball Python (rescued)
1.0 Albino Ball python
0.1 pastel Ball python

>>>>only have 4, hubby says no more..
>>
>>Don't give up hope on that either!
>>-----

LOL...
between the 6 parrots, 5 tortoises, 2 dogs, 4 snakes and 1 very sick mother.. i can not handle anymore right now... but never give up hope.. ;~)
-----
Cilene
2 kenyan sand boas
2 redtail boa
2 redfoot tortoises
3 box turtles (florida, eastern, ornate)
2 sulcata tortoises