Over the past few months I have decided to make changes to my husbandry. I now would recommend using a halogen bulb on a dimmer for your hot spot, and uvb for all snakes. Of course, you’ll want to research which halogen wattage and uvb light will work best for your specific animal, but this is what I have started to change all of my enclosures to. I no longer feel like a ceramic heat emitter and/or heat mat will provide the correct type of heat to help these animals thrive, and those types of heat should be used for supplemental use only for increasing ambient temps and helping with the heat gradient. :)
I spent about a year and a half researching sand boas. I just got my boy today, it's my first snake, I watched this to see how well I did to prepare. I think I did pretty good, the only thing I don't have is a heat gun but I can buy one this weekend. I'm so happy with Waylon Slithers, I got a camera with night vision so I can watch him explore his new home tonight.
what a great idea! night camera sounds perfect. I just got my girl but with zero information. idk how old she is other than not a infant I guesstimate she may be 6 months but idk how fast they grow on pinkies.
I used to have one before I left for bootcamp. She was the cutest and most chill little snake. I was devastated when my mom said she wouldn’t eat and had to give her up to someone who knew more than her about snakes because I wasn’t there. Wish they would let us have pets in the barracks 😭
Really great to see you mention the heatmat under the tank and not in the tank. I see so many guides that mention they put it inside the tank..... Thanks for the great guide, I had a sand boa back in 2011 or so and I want to look into getting one again :)
It's always good to keep a humidity box in your sand boas enclosure, it really helps them shed, my sand boas are almost always in it when I go check on them, they love sleeping in there, before I ever had humid box I noticed they did have trouble shedding.
I never knew these snakes existed until recently. I wanted to get a snake for so so so long so I went to my local reptile shop and they started handing me a ball python which was incredibly scary for me as I have never held one before and when I mentioned that he took it back and put a beautiful baby sand boa and I fell in love. Started researching everything I could. They helped me make sure I had absolutely everything I'd need and now I have my 2 month old albino kenyan sand boa. But I still am doing extra research as much as I can so thank you for the extra info.
They're definitely awesome when they eat. Reminds me of Tremors. Also, they bite surprisingly good for their size. You'd think it was a Bull Snake or something.
Well done care guide! It's a SAND-Boa :D But I get the problem with wet prey item and sand stuck to it. Many people place their waterbowl under the heat lamp to increase the humidity and create a breedingground for bacteria.
Sit on it for a while. Best advice. You are committing to that creature for life, its entire life. It's not a ton of work, but you do have to continue to care enough about it to actually do it for several years. And you don't want that to be a drag during that long time. So make sure that you want it. Just like you said.
I just received a smallish sand boa. my friend recently passed away and his parents didn't know what to do with it. I took it so that may not have been the smartest thing, but here she is. I was given the 10gal tank and some obviously unusable stuff with her. I have had her for about 2 weeks. I was told she should eat every 7-10 days and she wouldn't take FTed so I got her 2 pinkies. She ravenously ate the first one but the second she did not try to squeeze. she consumed it tail first and alive... I cried. That said , should I not feed her 2? I think I will try her on FTed this time. I don't know how old she is she is from the tip of my middle finger down to my wrist and about as far as my pointer finger. I seen the tiny baby sand boas in the store and she's bigger than the little head I seen sticking out of the sand. the one on your video reminds me of her but it's hard to tell cuz you were not holding her. I'm a new sub to your channel ty for the helpful information I luv the idea of half sand half Aspen. I have her a play sand Tupperware dish inside her tank. I help her into it. I had cut a hole in the top thinking that would help keep the sand warm. She came with just a red heat lamp but it doesn't seem to keep the sand warm enough so I added my human heating pad under the glass. it doesn't get very warm and I had to roll it a bit to get it close enough to the glass to make it feel warm. I have a human thermometer/temp gun (it has a switch from surface or body) and I use it several times a day trying to make sure everything is as good as I can get it. I first had her in the laundry room and I live in Florida but it was staying very humid. I moved her into my bedroom but I'm worried now she isn't getting enough day/night light. thanks again sorry so long winded.
i have a male KSB that is about 6 months old. It has never even attempted to bite me. It just gets twitchy and tries to get away. But once I am able to get in my hand, it just relaxes. These snakes can appear very dull and boring during the day because they just burrow underneath the substrate and do absolutely nothing. But if you watch it during the night, you will see it actually exploring its cage and checking out its surroundings. You might even see it drinking water (i have only seen this once). These snakes have more personality than you might think. But that personality tends to only come out at night.
I agree. I almost always see mine out after dark. I have a female. She is mostly very calm but occasionally will strike within a couple seconds of holding
@@rasbowsreptiles7310 How do the bites feel? Does it draw blood? I have never even seen my snake's fangs before so i honestly dont know what they are capable of.
Sometimes I feed in the enclosure, sometime out, but either way I watch until she’s done to make sure everything goes down smoothly. I put my sand boa on terra Sahara substrate and sand.
I have a female sand boa and she at first are thawed pinkies but then she refused to eat until I gave her live. Needless to say so only eats live hoppers or mice
I’ve read a few times about not putting sand in the primary housing but having a “sand box” and allowing them to have time weekly in their ‘sand box’.. how often would you move them to their sand box? And how often do you handle them? (I’ve heard once a week max for handling?)
Mine has done fine in sand. I just remove her from the enclosure when feeding. I take mine out a couple times a week usually and she does fine. If you split the enclosure lengthwise, 50% sand on the front and 50% aspen on the back that should be fine too.
