My new sand boa

[arachnocat]

Here's Lucy my new sand boa. I adopted her last night. She's really calm. I held her for a few hours while I watched TV and she seemed pretty content to just lay on my chest where it was warm.
The guy I got her from said she's 3 years old, but she seems rather small for her age (only 14"). Is that normal? He was feeding her 2 pinkies every 8 days.
I thought perhaps she was a male but looks female to me (comparing pics of her vent to pics online). I'm getting a scale this weekend to check her weight. She's nice and plump though and seems very healthy. I'm so excited to have my first snake. And such a nice one too!

 

[reverendsterlin]

definitely move her up to fuzzies but remember that Eryx colubrinus tend to keep to smaller prey, the Male sand boas only reach about 15 to 18 inches and about 70-100 grams in weight, although an old male may reach as much as 2 feet. The females will generally reach about 24-36 inches, with 28 being typical, and will weigh in the neighborhood of 400-900 + grams. A male will probably never progress beyond fuzzies or hoppers, a female hoppers to small adults. A very pretty snake, good luck.
Rev

 

[arachnocat]

Thanks. I'm going to bring her to a reptile meeting next week to see if someone can check the sex for me. I posted a vent shot on a snake forum and someone said it appeared she had spurs. I'll post the pic here too. See what you think:

 

[xBurntBytheSunx]

nice snake, you're lucky to get a friendly one ;P

 

[reverendsterlin]

LOOK MA, it's a boy. yep looks to be spurs.
Rev

 

[arachnocat]

Well I guess I'll have to change his name then. lol.
I read that female sand boas have spurs too, just smaller ones. Is that true?

 

[Cjacques]

Definately a boy. Male sand boas can be considerably smaller then the females. Plus the spurs and tail length. Enjoy sand boas are a blast. (Beware sexually mature male sand boas often refuse food for long periods of time... all they wanna do is make babies

 

[reverendsterlin]

Well I guess I'll have to change his name then. lol.
I read that female sand boas have spurs too, just smaller ones. Is that true?

thats true, by smaller it means very tiny. I say male due to size and the long vent to tail distance. Get it probed if you have any doubts.
Rev

 

[OldHag]

Here's a size difference. This female is about 2 yrs older than this male. The male is 5 yrs old. My female is just a HOG! Biggest kenyan Ive ever seen anyway. The picture doesnt do her justice.
Here's a pic of her spurs too.

 

[arachnocat]

WOW! She's a beauty! And she is HUGE!!!
Thanks for the pic of the spurs. I took my snake to a meeting at the reptile rescue center last night and a few people said it looked female but was hard to tell. I guess I'll have to find someone who's able to do a probe.
My snake is doing great though. It's really friendly. Won't eat anything bigger than a mouse pinky. I tried a fuzzy but after sizing it up she wasn't interested and then ate two pinkies. Someone suggested moving her up to rat pinkies so I might get a few of those to try. Or perhaps a live fuzzy would be more interesting to her.