Reply by PHFaust — 2025-12-15 20:46:45 GMT

>>Third time's a charm?
>>

Are you using the URL link? If you look at the lower right hand corner there is the tools and toys area that will give you the old HTML codes needed too! I know it has been a while!

And WELCOME BACK!!!!!!!!!
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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Reply by AlexNevgloskiJr — 2025-11-22 20:33:35 GMT

Third time's a charm?

Reply by AlexNevgloskiJr — 2025-11-22 20:30:30 GMT

Captive hatched '25 Saharan sand boa.

Reply by markg — 2016-03-18 17:31:24 GMT

Lol, motion-detection camera. You picked the wrong type of snake for that. (said in jest, but there is definitely some truth in it.)

I have some sandboas too, not johnii, and I have some children's pythons. I can look into the python cages during the day and very rarely see them crawling. Yet, when I place some wine corks in the cage upright as indicators of snake movement, I can walk out of the room for 20 minutes, come back, and the corks are all knocked down but the snakes are again hiding. Those pythons are sneaky little buggers, and they have learned my patterns quite well.

My sandboas on the other hand will leave corks intact for days sometimes. For sure they are mostly lie-in-wait snakes.

Corks - my cheap motion detector. I finally found a use for them besides BB gun targets. God knows I have many corks.

Reply by reknirt — 2015-12-11 15:47:13 GMT

I have a 6 month old male sunset eryx johnii. I really like the sand boas, except for the fact that I haven't seen him in 5 days, even with a motion detecting camera on his tank.

Reply by CindySteinle — 2014-07-25 10:59:28 GMT

The biggest advantage of buying at a show is being able to choose face to face between animals. The other advantage is not paying shipping. You will see cheaper prices than say a big box store at shows, but the only real difference price wise on everything else will be to cut the shipping costs off. Remember the same vendors you buy from online are the same vendors you buy from at shows. They have staff and overhead no matter what.

So does skipping shipping costs equal what it takes to go to the show?

Reply by vjl4 — 2014-02-24 16:36:06 GMT

No worries, its not widely known that a coupe of species are oviparous. Turns out that muelleri is not even closely related to Kenyan sands even though the patterns are similar.

Vinny

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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles

Reply by VanPerry — 2014-02-24 07:41:21 GMT

I stand corrected, I should have recognized the species difference. I will go to bed with egg on my face tonight.

Reply by vjl4 — 2014-02-24 01:55:43 GMT

Almost all boas are live-bearers. E. muelleri and E. jayakari lay eggs, google them there are cool pics!

Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles

Reply by VanPerry — 2014-02-24 00:59:14 GMT

I should qualify that, Eryx mulleri, (Kenya) are live bairers.

Reply by VanPerry — 2014-02-24 00:50:13 GMT

No one will have sand boa eggs since they give live birth.

Reply by VanPerry — 2014-01-26 01:06:20 GMT

It is not to late, soak him in luke warm water or place a damp towel in the cage. If the shed does not rub off by itself then very gently swipe the towel over the stuck shed.

Reply by markg — 2014-02-19 19:14:00 GMT

Males usually are not very large when fully grown, and you can keep one in a 10gal, but a bit larger is always better for an adult. 10 gals do not give alot of space for temperature gradients in my opinion when the occupant is of size to fill up a good part of the cage.

Baby sand boas are easy pickin's for predators if exposed. That is why they do so well in small plastic shoebox cages when small - they feel secure. They also feel secure with the weight of substrate on top of them. They feed like mad when they have that going on. He will be OK in the 10 gal if you want. I would cover 80-90% of the screen top with plastic or styrene foam. Full screen tops are great for lizards but are not ideal for snakes that spend most of the time in the ground. I would put a water dish large enough to maintain a moderate humidity in there. Impossible with a full screen top. If your ambient humidity is already moderate, you can ignore. Remember, heat pads dry out animals when moisture is allowed to escape freely thru the cage top.

If you want to try hides, make them low. I made some out of 1/2 inch styrene foam. The walls are only 1/2 inch high made by cutting the foam in thin strips. I glued them onto the top piece with a glue gun and painted the hide black inside and out.

With sand boas, you can probably just lay a piece of cardboard or foam flat onto the substrate. Wrinkled up packing paper works really well on top of the substrate. My adult sandboa will sit under that paper on top of the substrate with her nose peeking out waiting to attack. Obviously she feels secure with the weight of the paper on her.

I understand that you probably want a display cage. Otherwise I would suggest a plastic storage box that measures more or less in the area of 22 inches x 14 inches for an adult. A 20 gal long would be nice for an adult or two.

Sand boas are IMO the best boid snake to keep in terms of ease of care.

Reply by VanPerry — 2014-01-18 00:09:26 GMT

vpi.com has a good care sheet for sand boa's. Although he can live in a 10 gallon tank he will use as big as enclosure as you provide. If you building a palace give him some room. As for hides I don't provide one as they seem to prefer just burrowing in the substrate.

Enjoy your snake, sand boa's are one of my favorites.

Reply by vjl4 — 2013-11-19 21:08:45 GMT

The albinos were nice, but these are spectacular! If I send a self addressed stamped envelope will you send me some?

Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles

Reply by Rick Staub — 2013-11-03 01:02:54 GMT

Vic,

Shoot me an email. I assume you still have it.
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Rick Staub

Reply by chrish — 2013-08-12 23:35:06 GMT

I don't think humidity is a big deal in sandboa cages as long as the cages aren't wet. Particular for species like Kenyans that live in areas that occasionally receive heavy rainfall.

Don't worry about it. 50% is fine. I kept and bred colubrinus in areas that had humidities higher than 50% most of the year.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Reply by VICtort — 2013-10-25 01:57:20 GMT

Those are nice, they just keep getting more and more orange...

Will you please explain how cool you keep them in the winter? Are they treated like temperate climate Colubrids? I have some E. johnii from Warren and yourself, but I have been unsuccessful breeding them. I wonder if they need more cooling or if my male just does not have the stimulus he needs. They 1.3 are large and about 7 years old. Any advice on breeding them is much appreciated.
Gratefully, Vic

Reply by vjl4 — 2013-10-01 16:32:25 GMT

I think we can all agree that Eryx taxonomy is kind of a mess and in dire need of revision. I know there is some new molecular data in the works that includes "all" described species of Boid, but I'm not sure when it will be published. If I get an undergrad interested in snake phylogenetics I'll be sure to put them to work figuring out what is going on with the Ruffies, finding museum vouchered species may not be easy though!

Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles

Reply by chrish — 2013-09-28 04:00:00 GMT

Reading your reply made me wonder exactly what the "current" validity of loveridgei is anyway. Last I knew, Tokar had sunk it and no one had ressurected it.

In doing some quick research, I reread parts of this paper -
http://www.fupress.net/index.php/tropicalzoology/issue/view/16
which is the original description of Eryx borri (bogus, IMHO).

But the authors point out that "rufescens" type snakes were originally described as Eryx jaculus var. sennaariensis which means that the subspecies name sennaariensis has precedence over rufescens if that taxon has any validity at all.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Reply by vjl4 — 2013-09-26 16:28:14 GMT

Hey Chris,

"Wouldn't that be what you expect from a group of 6 specimens of the same taxon/evolutionary group? "

Not necessarily, if for example loveridgei and colubrinus were distinct (sub)species then I would expect them to be reciprocally monophyletic with a monophyletic clade of colubrinus and a monophyletic clade of loveridgei. Instead loveridgei nests within colubrinus so at the very least they are not species by the phylogenetic species concept (for whatever worth that may be to you).

"With regard to the specimens of colubrinus that ended up coming out closer to loveridgei, what was the basis for calling those specimens colubrinus, not loveridgei?"

I don't think these molecular data had anything to do with the sinking of loveridgei into colubrinus (they are not published as far as I know). Rather I think it's a matter of priority, if memory serves me right (and it may not), colubrinus was named first so it has priority on the species name.

Actually I would probably not be so ready to sink loveridgei yet, I would prefer many more individuals sampled from throughout the range and to have Ruffies sampled to. Also the current molecular data is a single mitochondrial gene so it would be good have some nuclear markers as well. Lots of things could make a true species of loveridgei nest within a true species of colubrinus (incorrect species IDs, incomplete lineage sorting, a single introgressing female line of loveridgei into colubrinus, poor sampling leading to spurious results, etc..)

Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles

Reply by chrish — 2013-09-24 01:36:24 GMT

With respect to each other. There is a clade of three colubrinus specimens that is sister to a clade of two colubrinus and one loveridgei. The tree looks like ((col,col),col),(col,(col,lov)).

Wouldn't that be what you expect from a group of 6 specimens of the same taxon/evolutionary group?
With regard to the specimens of colubrinus that ended up coming out closer to loveridgei, what was the basis for calling those specimens colubrinus, not loveridgei?
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Reply by vjl4 — 2013-09-20 19:12:30 GMT

With respect to each other. There is a clade of three colubrinus specimens that is sister to a clade of two colubrinus and one loveridgei. The tree looks like ((col,col),col),(col,(col,lov)).

Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles

Reply by chrish — 2013-09-19 15:49:55 GMT

Sorry, should clarify my question.

You are saying colubrinus and loveridgei are paraphyletic compared to what outgroup/ingroups.

I know that Gongylophis (sensu Tokar) is paraphyletic, but what makes colubrinus and loveridgei paraphyletic?
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Reply by chrish — 2013-09-19 15:47:14 GMT

..
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Reply by vjl4 — 2013-09-16 17:33:09 GMT

Thanks for the reference. It's interesting because I have an old molecular dataset that suggests Eryx colubrinus colubrinus and Eryx colubrinus loveridgei are paraphyletic, I never could get rufescens DNA though.

Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles

Reply by chrish — 2013-09-16 11:24:47 GMT

Sorry, hadn't checked in here for a while.

It was Anatoly Tokar's revision of colubrinus that officially sunk the subspecies.

Tokar, A.A. 1996. Taxonomic revision of the genus Gongylophis Wagler 1830: G. colubrinus (L. 1758) (Serpentes Boidae). Tropical Zoology 9: 1-17.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Reply by vjl4 — 2013-08-23 01:55:53 GMT

I'd also like to know who officially sunk them all into a single species. I don't think it was Noonan, for that matter I can't think of any genetic studies that included an "Egyptian" and a Ruffie. If anyone has access to vouchered Egyptians and Ruffies I'd do the genetic work in my lab

Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles

Reply by englishaussie — 2013-08-02 15:55:56 GMT

most hatchlings / newborns shed in about 7-10 days maybe up two weeks after hatching or birth. Congrats,

Andy.