Eryx colubrinusLinnaeus, 1758

Sand Boa

Photograph by The Reptilarium, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons

A nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 900 mm nose to tail.

Reptilia › Squamata › Boidae › Eryx

Grows to: 900mm; greatest recorded
Eats: Carnivorous
Active: Nocturnal
Lives up to: 30years

Body length across Boidae

Longer than only 27% of all boas anyone has measured.

27% of 63 species are smaller73% larger

109 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest6,700 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 109 to 6,700 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

34 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: 2014

The animal itself

Limbs: None
Pupil: Vertical slit
Venomous: No
Fangs: None
Longest recorded life: 30years

Size

Length nose to tail · greatest recorded: 900mm2 ft 11 in
Hatchling length · nose to tail: 175mm7 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed: 355.9g12.6 oz

How it lives

Diet: Carnivorous
How it hunts: Sit and wait
Active: Nocturnal
Where it lives: Fossorial, terrestrial
Habitat: Forest, Savanna, Shrubland
Biome: Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
Region: Afrotropic
Mainland or island: Mainland
Lowest it lives · above sea level: 36m
Highest it lives · above sea level: 1500m
Range size: 2,185,728km²

Breeding

Reproduction: Viviparous
Average clutch: 12eggs
Eggs or young per clutch: 3–32eggs
Mean clutch: 17.9eggs
First breeds at: 14months

Naming and history

Suborder: Serpentes
Infraorder: Alethinophidia
Subspecies: Eryx colubrinus colubrinus (LINNAEUS 1758) Eryx colubrinus loveridgei STULL 1932
Described by: Linnaeus
Moved to another genus · since it was first described: Yes
Described in: 1758
Type locality: Egypt

Keeping one

2 ft 11 in × 17.5 in × 2 ft 3 in(90 × 45 × 68 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 17.5 in (45 cm) deep.

The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.

Burrows, so substrate deep enough to dig in matters as much as floor area.

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 2 ft 11 in (900 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 Sand Boa. 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.

36kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 356 g, the heaviest recorded for Sand Boa — 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, 3 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.

What each pairing produces → · Two genes at once →

Albinobreeder consensus
No black pigment, leaving orange blotches on white with red eyes.
Anerythristicbreeder consensus
Orange absent, leaving a grey, brown and black animal.
Paradoxbreeder consensus
Patches of colour in places the animal's morph says should have none — most often dark markings on an albino.
Worth knowing. Paradox markings arise during the animal's own development rather than from a gene. They cannot be bred for, no pairing makes them more likely, and a paradox animal's offspring are ordinary. Paradox animals are sold at a premium, often to people intending to produce more.

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 · greatest recorded
— 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
— 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
— Clutches in a year
— Clutches a year · fewest
— Clutches a year · most
— 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
— 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
— Population trend
— 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 Boidae

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). Eryx colubrinus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eryx-colubrinus

@misc{eryx_colubrinus_2026,
  title  = {Eryx colubrinus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eryx-colubrinus}
}

Sources

Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
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.