I would like to purchase a San Diego Black and Blue rosy boa along with a Kenyan sand boa, and house them together. I know they are both erycine snakes and from what I can tell need the same type of housing all around. They stay the same size if they are both the same sex which I intend to have to avoid mating or stressing. I know you can house multiple sand boas together if sexed and am almost positive the same goes for the rosy as well. I was thinking of housing in a 30 gallon with a small tree for the rosy and a couple hideboxes, maybe even a humidity box. i think calcium sand would be OK for a substrate, or possibly crushed walnut shell. If any owners could give me any advice or someone who knows about housing them together I would really appreciate it.

I really know nothing about boas, but I do know that calcium sand and crushed walnut are both unsafe substrates.

Generally people advise against housing different species together for stress reasons as well.

Why do you want to house them together?

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Keeping them together jeopardizes the health and safety of both. From cross-contamination to behavioral aggression and unintentional "scent of food still on the other snake" aggression.

Neither species requires a huge amount of space. You can hunt down another tank, lighting equipment, etc. Look in yard sales, The Freecycle Network (through yahoo), craig's list and many other mediums. Because it's for a snake it doesn't even need to hold water...

As for sand - children's playsand is the only really safe sand. I use this for the hognose and the sand hide box for the plated lizard. The calci-sands have their problems. Coconut shell substrate is not the best either. If ingested there are small jagged edges. Aspen shavings is a great way to go, though. Of course, these are all for if you don't feed in-cage. Use a feed-box if you choose a more natural substrate...

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Stay away from the crushed wallnut shell, It's TERROBLE stuff. I havent used the calci sand but i've heard enough about it to stay far away from it. I wouldnt recomend housing your snakes together either. You can easoly find seperate setups for them.

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stay away from crushed walnut and calcisand. you can easily use another burrowing substrate such as aspen or carefresh for them. i own a rosy and have for 3+ years now. they and sand boas are burrowing types so they just need something to burrow into when they want to disappear.

do not house them together. as the others have said you are putting their health at risk. just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. my one rosy lives in a 20 long gallon tank and that is sufficient for its entire life. snakes are solitary creatures and do not require "friends". they don't get lonely as we think of the word lonely. being together may easily stress them out even if they do not show the signs.

plus, it is alot harder to monitor who is pooping, eating, shedding, etc. you put their health at risk because if one has a parasite or infection, it is a lot easier to spread it to other cagemates. all of your snakes should be quarantined anyway to avoid potential problems so you will need separate setups anyway for that.

and there's always the possibility that they will not get along with each other so you will need space and a place for any who do not get along. its alot easier to set up for each animal than to put them all together then find out they do not get along, which leaves you stuck on what to do.

i have tried putting my two corns together and they do not tolerate each other at all. luckily I had the space and extra tank to put the other so they are seperate.

do NOT add a humidity box. rosys do not tolerate high humidity. water should only be offered in a bowl 1 or 2 days a week so they can drink then it should be taken back out. any spills or excess water will lead to higher humidity above what they will like. the temps on the warm side of the tank should be in the 80s at least, you don't want to go lower than that except for night temps.

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