01/28/2026
Sand boas are enormously popular pets. As small boas with interesting colors and patterns, these nonvenomous snakes are ideal pets for many, from first-time keepers to well experienced enthusiasts. The genus Eryx has 13 currently recognized species of sand boas, and many of these are bred and reared under human care. The rough-scaled sand boa (Eryx conicus) is one of the more popular sand boa species. Species of Eryx naturally occur in southeastern Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East, and in southwestern Asia.
Sand boas are known to be nocturnal, and to burrow in loose substrate much of the time. In the wild, sand boas are known to be ambush hunters, preying upon small birds, small lizards, and small mammals such as rodents. Under human care, sand boas regularly thrive upon a diet of appropriately sized rodent prey.
Sand boas are also notable for displaying an unusually strong degree of sexual dimorphism in their body size, with mature females reaching nearly double the length of mature males. Females typically grow to a length of around 30" while males typically grow to around 17" in length. Sand boas are expected to live for around 15 to 30 years.
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The photograph used in this post shows a close up of a rough-scaled sand boa (Eryx conicus) observed in the wild. The photo was taken by Birdman S Chakrabarty, and shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. The image was not altered for use in this post.
View license information here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
