Eryx c. colubrinus

These 4 het babies were born 8/8, plus two stillborn. They average 22 Cm (8.7") and weigh 15 grams each. This is the first litter of hets, which will enable me to outbreed the line a bit. With luck, I should have these snakes in production in a couple years. This project IS NOT a short term one. It will take a few years to get enough of these wonderful snakes sufficiently outbred and into production to part with any.

This picture of one of the offspring of the original pair of albinos was two years old. Notice that it is darker than either parent with a slightly purpleish hue.

The Egyptian sand boas are interesting snakes and not particularly hard to keep. They are a burrowing snake from a hot environment. They are a small, stocky snake, usually less than 26 inches.

I have a trio of Egyptian sand boas, one pair of amelanistic, and a normal female. So far as I know, these are the only pure Egyptian amels. Most of the albino sand boas on the market have been bred into Kenyan sand boas from an Egyptian sand boa male.

These are most likely tyrosinase + albinos, since they have normal eyes, rather than pink eyes. Also, I am told that the offspring of T+ albinos are more likely to develop a lavender coloration than are offspring of T- albinos.

I intend to keep the strain pure, as they are very much different from the Kenyan sand boas.

I keep mine in 20 gallon aquaria with 3-4 inches of washed and filtered playbox sand. Along one edge of the bottom of the aquarium I have a strip of 4" heat tape which is on constantly. This allows them to burrow at varying depths on or off the tape, thus choosing the temperature they want.

They are nocturnal and will rapidly burrow when the lights are turned on at night.
I have observed them breeding while totally exposed on top of the sand, but usually just their tails are above the sand.
They have very shiny skin in daylight but, since they abhor light, it is not usually noticeable.
They have continued to refuse dead food, but feed well on live fuzzies, hoppers and pink rats.

This is the female, obviously gravid, and a few days away from birthing.Interestingly, until she became gravid the pattern was a light yellow. When she became gravid the pattern became a light orange color, and it remains that color.

This is the albino male, considerably smaller than the female.

This is the normal female.