Little Sand Boa feeding.

I picked up a baby sand boa (Kenyan it looks like) on Craigslist this weekend from a guy selling it cheap because of neglect and his teen daughter didn't want it anymore. I figured that it would be cool to get experience with a new type of snake. I picked up the snake and it is TINY. I knew it was a small breed but I was not prepared for how small it actually was. I read in the care sheets that they eat mouse pinkys so I had picked some up in preparation but they look almost too big to feed it. The mouse skull is about double the diameter of the snake but I need to feed it tonight or tomorrow (apparently it hasn't eaten in a couple weeks).

My question is should I try the whole pinky or cut it and feed a smaller part? I can try to get comparison pictures up if you need it but here is the snake on the previous owners hand

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It's about 6-7 inches and like 1/2 inch diameter

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Unless the pinkies are particularly large, give it a try. If you're still worried, the Arctic Mice PetSmart has seem to me to run small.

Also, sand boas can, like BPs, be a pain about eating, particularly the males. I seem to have the best success by putting them in a deli cup with the mouse, lid on, in their cage just before human-bedtime, or at least leaving the room. But we've only had them about 6 months, so not an expert.

"The Sand Boa Book" by Warren Treacher is the go-to book.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prognathodon

Unless the pinkies are particularly large, give it a try. If you're still worried, the Arctic Mice PetSmart has seem to me to run small.

Also, sand boas can, like BPs, be a pain about eating, particularly the males. I seem to have the best success by putting them in a deli cup with the mouse, lid on, in their cage just before human-bedtime, or at least leaving the room. But we've only had them about 6 months, so not an expert.

"The Sand Boa Book" by Warren Treacher is the go-to book.


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Alright I'll try it out tonight. And lid on? Why? I'll see if I can get that book. It's surprisingly tough to find a lot of info about them online. And I don't think they are particularly large (although I've never needed a mouse pinky for anything)

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What a cute little wormy - is it fast? Hard to handle?

Good luck with the feeding...don't forget pinkies are kinda "squishy" I think it would get it down.

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Originally Posted by Snoopyslim

What a cute little wormy - is it fast? Hard to handle?

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Nope. Doesn't even s curve when I pick it up. And guy said it had never bit anyone. Seems to be super mellow and it's not too fast either. It's actually kind of clumsy but given the opportunity it will burrow.Sometimes it even tries to burrow into my hand and it'll smack it's face against it. It's way easier to handle than a rat snake (because it is not as fast) and doesn't explore as much as a BP. The hardest part to handling it is finding it in its enclosure. Usually you can only see the tip of the nose poking out of the substrate. And sometimes you have to dig around carefully for it

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Fresh born or day old mouse pinks are very tiny. You could try to find some of those if you're worried about size.

Lid on, because otherwise they slither out without eating. You can go ahead and try without the lid, or just lightly set on top of the cup first.


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update on this, I went and fed a full pinky to him and he took forever to eat it but got it all down. took the f/t too (I wasn't sure he was going to because prev owners fed live and said he wouldnt eat f/t). I might cut the next one up a little because it took him like 45 minutes to get it down and my other snakes it takes max 15 minutes to swallow their food. Could also go find those petsmart ones that are apparently smaller and save these for when he grows a little. I didnt try the cup but that is a good suggestion for when it is being stubborn. Thanks guys!