Squamata · LamprophiidaeEntry 2,751 of 21,572

Reptilia · Squamata

Boaedon fuliginosusBoie, 1827

Brown House Snake

Photograph by Ltshears, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 130 cm nose to tail.

Also called African House Snake.

Once published as Lamprophis fuliginosus — those names reach this page.

Reptilia › Squamata › Lamprophiidae › Boaedon

Grows to: 1300mm; greatest recorded
Eats: Carnivorous
Active: Nocturnal
Lives up to: 20years

Body length across Lamprophiidae

Longer than 88% of all species in Lamprophiidae anyone has measured.

88% of 90 species are smaller12% larger

235 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest1,750 mm

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

39 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Two of these figures disagree

Body mass (adult female, mean) is given as 156.4, and Body mass (greatest) as 91.7 — but an average female cannot outweigh the heaviest animal recorded. They come from different sources and both are shown exactly as those sources give them.

Standing in the world

Still living: Extant
Conservation status: Least Concern
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked: 2014
Population trend: Stable

The animal itself

Limbs: None
Pupil: Vertical slit
Venomous: No
Fangs: None
Longest recorded life: 20years

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded: 705mm2 ft 4 in
Length nose to tail · greatest recorded: 1300mm4 ft 3 in
Hatchling length · nose to tail: 210mm8.25 in
Body mass · greatestcomputeddisputed: 91.7g3.2 oz
Body mass · adult female, meanmeasureddisputed: 156.4g5.5 oz

How it lives

Diet: Carnivorous
How it hunts: Active foraging
Active: Nocturnal
Where it lives: Terrestrial
Habitat: Grassland, Shrubland, Wetlands
Biome: Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
Region: Afrotropic
Mainland or island: Mainland
Lowest it lives · above sea level: 674m
Highest it lives · above sea level: 2400m
Range size: 12,482,278km²

Breeding

Reproduction: Oviparous
Average clutch: 9eggs
Eggs or young per clutch: 1–20eggs
Mean clutch: 11.5eggs
Clutches in a year: 1.5per year
Clutches a year: 1–2per year
Age at first breeding · female: 182days

Naming and history

Suborder: Serpentes
Infraorder: Alethinophidia
Subspecies: No
Described by: Boie
Moved to another genus · since it was first described: Yes
Described in: 1827
Type locality: Java (in error)

Keeping one

4 ft 3 in × 2 ft 2 in × 3 ft 2 in(130 × 65 × 98 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.

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 3 in (1300 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.

11kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 92 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.

Morphs

0 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 2 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.

What each pairing produces →

Albinobreeder consensus
No black pigment, leaving an orange and cream animal with red eyes.
Ground colourbreeder consensus
How red, orange or brown an animal is, and how clearly the pale head stripes show. Follows the population it came from and is worked on by selection.

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 at hatching
— 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
— First breeds from · youngest recorded
— First breeds by · oldest recorded
— Hatchling length · smallest recorded
— Hatchling length · largest recorded
— Mature from · youngest recorded
— Mature by · oldest recorded
— Size at maturity · smallest recorded
— Size at maturity · largest recorded
— Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
— Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
— Colour on the back
— Pattern on the back
— 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 fuliginosus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/boaedon-fuliginosus

@misc{boaedon_fuliginosus_2026,
  title  = {Boaedon fuliginosus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/boaedon-fuliginosus}
}

Sources

Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.
Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.