Thinking that that's what they live on in the wild along with everything else out there you would think yes , but common thought is that they would get sand in between their scales and ingest some when eating . Having said that my wife ( the custodian of our snakes ) will NOT use anything other than paper . I am at present using golden pebbles for our large CBD's it holds the temp well and doesn't colour them like the sand . Yes forgot to say that most sands seem to be coloured (even though they state otherwise on the bag ) or the really fine bits just stick to the animals . decide for yourself ---if you feel comfy doing it, do it , if lots of people say don't and you still want to, do it and don't tell !!