• The Sandboa Book by Warren H. Treacher https://thesandboabook.com/ or https://www.amazon.com/Sandboa-Book-Warren-H-Treacher/dp/1938850149
• Credible online sources
• Personal conversations with hobbyists who have extensive experience keeping and breeding sand boas

We feed snakes live rodents most of the time. This is more convenient for us; however, we always store frozen rodents as a back-up in case our live supply can’t keep pace with feedings. Many of the adult snakes will take live or frozen/thawed (f/t) without hesitation.

In our personal experience, it is easier to start any species of sand boa on live mice. Many can be switched over to f/t. However, success rates may vary depending on the individual preference of the snake and the keepers’ ability to stimulate a feed response. Keepers with experience converting other snakes over to f/t typically find it easy to convert sand boas as well. If a sand boa is a keepers’ first snake, however, then reliance on switching to f/t may be more safely considered experimental rather than a sure bet.

Russian sand boas are the easiest species to convert and maintain on f/t, in our collection. All of our adult Russian sand boas eat live or f/t at any given feeding.

Ultimately, our advice is if you choose to feed f/t you should have a source for live rodents available for any new baby sand boa until it can be converted.

Yes, Russian sand boas have the same general husbandry requirements as Kenyan sand boas.

Although general husbandry practices are the same for Russian and Kenyan sand boas, there are many differences between these species. Here, I will mainly focus on behavioral and reproductive differences. In regard to behavior, it is our experience that Russian sand boas do not stay burrowed as often and are more active above the substrate than Kenyan sand boas. They also seem more inquisitive of and interactive with their human keepers than Kenyan sand boas. They will readily venture to the front of an open enclosure to see if the keeper has food. If they find there is no food, they often will continue to investigate and crawl out of an open enclosure to explore.

The most noticeable difference between Russian and Kenyan sand boas may their reproductive biology. The Russians have a shorter gestation time of approximately 3 months, as opposed to 4 months in Kenyans. Russian sand boas in the wild also experience a cold winter, unlike Kenyans. It is for this reason we have always cooled our Russians for 3 months prior to pairing for breeding. Since many snake species are successfully bred by replicating natural, seasonal cycles we have attempted to follow this same practice which has resulted in consistent, predictable success. Although this has resulted in satisfactory breeding success, we cannot conclude that it is necessary to cool this species based on our results alone. We are aware of other breeders who have had breeding success without providing a cooling period. More work needs to be done in this area, perhaps by comparing breeding success data from hobbyists who use different methods.

If you are interested in more information concerning the differences between Russian and Kenyan sand boas please refer to The Sandboa Book by Warren H. Treacher.