Reptilia · Squamata
Boaedon capensisDuméril, Bibron, Duméril, 1854
Brown House Snake
Photograph by Wynand Uys, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 150 cm nose to tail.
Also called Common House Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Lamprophiidae › Boaedon
- Grows to
- 1500mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Saxicolous, terrestrial
Longer than 97% of all species in Lamprophiidae anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 235 to 1,750 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
31 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2021
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Fangs
- None
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1185mm3 ft 11 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1500mm4 ft 11 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 225mm8.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 271.8g9.6 oz
1500 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Barends and Maritz 2021 (SVL 284-642, female SVL 284-526 mean 391.2 mm, n = 5), 600-1000, to 1500 in South Africa (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 735 mm in males, 1185 mm in females; hatchlings 190-260 mm TL), Marais 2022 (adults 40-60 cm, in Kwazulu natal reach 1.5 m' young 19-26 cm))
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Mixed
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Grassland, Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 674–1828m
- Range size
- 4,813,445km²
rodents, and lizards, also snakes, frogs bats and birds (Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022), birds, mammals and reptiles (van Huyssteen 2023)
van Huyssteen 2023
This snake takes refuge during the day under rocks and logs and in burrows. It emerges at dusk to hunt (Broadley and Blaylock 2013), see also Wilkey and Terrell 2017, nocturnal (Pietersen et al. 2021, van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022)
terrestrial (Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022), saxicolous and terrestrial (van Huyssteen 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 14
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 8–20eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1–3per year
Feldman et al. 2015
midpoint of the reported range — Meiri, 2024, Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr., 33:e13812
8-18 (Marais 2005, Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022), 6-20 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Duméril, Bibron, Duméril
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1854
- Type locality
- South Africa
Keeping one
4 ft 11 in × 2 ft 6 in × 3 ft 8 in(150 × 75 × 113 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.
Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own total length of 4 ft 11 in (1500 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Brown House Snake. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.
Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.
29kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 272 g, the heaviest recorded for Brown House Snake — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Longest recorded life
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — Clutches in a year
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Venomous
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Lamprophiidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Boaedon capensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/boaedon-capensis
@misc{boaedon_capensis_2026,
title = {Boaedon capensis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/boaedon-capensis}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.