Curious about Western Hognoses...

[lizardminion]

I do plan on getting some of these, but I'm curious about a few things, such as feeding.
I read somewhere that they eat rodents in the wild, and I'm sure a full grown snake will eat pre-killed adult mice is captivity, but how do they naturally kill their rodent prey? I'm not at all planning to feed my snakes live rodents unless necessary, (rather a last resort, really, meaning if all else fails) but I do like to know the nature of pets. (Which is why I was nagging everyone in my other thread)
So, do they chew on the mice, swallow them alive, kill them like a lion does, or what?
Also, can someone post pics of the several morphs available? Not all searches on the Net bring up good results. (especially since Google has the new crappy search thing which gives me results for lizard when I Googled snake...)
What has to be your favorite morph? And what is their staple, natural food item? Can they swim decently and do they eat fish? (Probably a no on that one, lol)

P.S. I don't know if you all know this, but hognoses don't produce venom and aren't venomous, at least this species anyway. They have toxins in their saliva, though, that affect Anurans.

 

[Thistles]

The hoggie at the museum where I volunteer usually just grabs his mouse, gnaws on it for a minute and then swallows it. They're rear-fanged, so they have to really chew their juice in.

They like rodents, lizards and anurans in the wild. I doubt they swim well. They're mostly fossorial.

Excellent choice of snake! I like the anerys, but they are too much moolah for me.

 

[Low]

Ive bred H. Nasicus for years...very easy to take care of...and their natural prey is amphibians, not rodents...as hatchlings they can be quite reticent to switch to pinks, but In my experiance, they all do after awhile...and for the sake of accuracy, they are considered "venemous"...they are on the hot list as rear fanged, same as coral snakes, mangrove etc...not enough study has been done to determin if they should be removed or not...that being said, 99.999% of hoggies are all bluster...cute really...thats not to say one cant be bit by one, in fact I have been, by a very large female protecting her eggs..my hand swelled up quite nicely and I lost some use of my fingers for afew hours...as far as morphs, the hobby has only scratched the surface of whats possible with their genetics...red, green, toffeebelly, purple line, pale albino, orange albino, red albino, anaconda, superconda, striped conda....amazing really...but because the hobby is still in its infancy, the prices can be incredible...

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[Low]

Ive bred H. Nasicus for years...very easy to take care of...and their natural prey is amphibians, not rodents...as hatchlings they can be quite reticent to switch to pinks, but In my experiance, they all do after awhile...and for the sake of accuracy, they are considered "venemous"...they are on the hot list as rear fanged, same as coral snakes, mangrove etc...not enough study has been done to determin if they should be removed or not...that being said, 99.999% of hoggies are all bluster...cute really...thats not to say one cant be bit by one, in fact I have been, by a very large female protecting her eggs..my hand swelled up quite nicely and I lost some use of my fingers for afew hours...as far as morphs, the hobby has only scratched the surface of whats possible with their genetics...red, green, toffeebelly, purple line, pale albino, orange albino, red albino, anaconda, superconda, striped conda....amazing really...but because the hobby is still in its infancy, the prices can be incredible...




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[peterUK]

P.S. I don't know if you all know this, but hognoses don't produce venom and aren't venomous, at least this species anyway. They have toxins in their saliva, though, that affect Anurans.

It also effects humans to a slight degree or larger if you are allergic as I was.
I was bitten by a 6 inch hatchling a few years ago, no big deal I thought as i've been bitten 100's of times by hatchlings and juvies of various species over many years. I was busy at the time so I let it have my finger for lunch while I finished what I was doing. Apart from kingsnakes I've found that almost all hatchlings will let go after a short period but this little worm sized fella just didnt want to let go, after a few minutes he got his back fangs in place and started chewing and then it started to sting and he didnt stop chewing, after another few minutes of chewing the bite was really starting to notice so i waved my finger over a bottle of ammonia and he let go immediately. My finger started to swell and after approx 15 minutes it looked like someone had smashed my finger with a hammer (and it felt like it too) The throbbing and swelling lasted for a few hours before slowing subsiding, by the next day the throbbing had gone and the finger was only slightly swollen. 48 hours after been bitten all symptoms has gone and i was just left with a few pinprick holes left by the rear fangs. Great little snakes one of, if not my favourite species.

 

[lizardminion]

It also effects humans to a slight degree or larger if you are allergic as I was.
I was bitten by a 6 inch hatchling a few years ago, no big deal I thought as i've been bitten 100's of times by hatchlings and juvies of various species over many years. I was busy at the time so I let it have my finger for lunch while I finished what I was doing. Apart from kingsnakes I've found that almost all hatchlings will let go after a short period but this little worm sized fella just didnt want to let go, after a few minutes he got his back fangs in place and started chewing and then it started to sting and he didnt stop chewing, after another few minutes of chewing the bite was really starting to notice so i waved my finger over a bottle of ammonia and he let go immediately. My finger started to swell and after approx 15 minutes it looked like someone had smashed my finger with a hammer (and it felt like it too) The throbbing and swelling lasted for a few hours before slowing subsiding, by the next day the throbbing had gone and the finger was only slightly swollen. 48 hours after been bitten all symptoms has gone and i was just left with a few pinprick holes left by the rear fangs. Great little snakes one of, if not my favourite species.

Lol.
"Ah, that blasted thing hurt me like a b----! And therefor, I love them. "
I'm sorry, your post just made me think that.
Who do y'all recommend as a cheap, reliable breeder?

 

[ScarecrowGirl]

Not to hi-jack the thread or any thing but why are they so un-godly expensive! I used to catch little southern hoggies by the handfull when I live in Florida. I wish I had kept a few! I cant find a western under 80$ and I've seen a few easterns for 89$ at the cheapest.

and for all the hognose snakes that I have ever met wild and captive I personally have NEVER gotten one to strike at me... or at anything. They put on the best little displays though, never seen one play dead either.

 

[Low]

Kingsnake.com is ur best bet...or a show, but be prepared to drop some ducketts....a normal will run between 45 and 100...morphs, alot more....i sell albinos for 375 for female hatchlings and 275 for males....im still trying to get a purple superconda for my breeding colony but Im not going to drop 5 g's...lol

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[ScarecrowGirl]

Kingsnake.com is ur best bet...or a show, but be prepared to drop some ducketts....a normal will run between 45 and 100...morphs, alot more....i sell albinos for 375 for female hatchlings and 275 for males....im still trying to get a purple superconda for my breeding colony but Im not going to drop 5 g's...lol

5 G'S! Eek I had a heart attack.... all I'd like is a little normal guy. Lol, oh well, I'll just wait till my lucky day rolls around I'd put out 45 to 60 out on the drop of the hat really, but I'm uneasy with larger amounts on one animal.

 

[Frank S]

Their is a Female Hypo Pink Pastel Anaconda hog for sale on kingsnake now for 20,000.
Frank.

 

[Galapoheros]

I've thought of getting one of those for a long time, I used to look for them in w tx but never did find one. I know several people that have them, really cool snake. I like it's short, stocky look. But I've gotten away from snakes because of the maintenance. Westerns are known for accepting rodents more eagerly than other N. american sps, prob more adapted to do so living in the desert-like areas. I never got an eastern to accept rodents. btw, the "toad popping" mentioned at wiki, saying "it's not true", ...that's not true. I've kept several Eastern hognose and watched them pop really inflated toads. This anecdotal, I know, because you're hearing it from somebody people don't really know. Regardless, I watched it many times. What they do use their rear fangs to scrape and pull down, alternating sides. It's obviously not an effort to swallow at that point, they are at work. Finally, they reach the lung and the toad deflates. How do I know the lung was popped?, you can literally see bloody bubbles come out next to the spine. I'm surprised it's not caught on vid yet. If and when I find another one, I will prove with vid. Anyway, I would get them if you're so interested. If I got another snake, it would be a pair of those.

 

[Low]

see, 20,000 is rediculous...especially taking into account that the hypo gene is still basically unproven at this point...ive got a male green line that bears every trait for hypo and hes given me lots of eggs, but never thrown any "hypo" babies...hes even been bred to very hypo-ish females and still nothing...u should check the price on anerys...crazy!...but anery hogs are, in my opinion, the best representatives of the anery gene of any snake species...look like a black and white tv...lol

eastern hogs are difficult to come by and garner quite a bit....as far as "normal" hogs, Heterodon Nasicus "mexican", the mexican western hog is my favorite...very rattler like in its appearance.

as far as strictly a pet snake goes, western hogs are the best IMO...get a female if you can, they get much larger than males...its actually really funny, the size differential...ive got a female crimson albino thats almost 3' long...my adult males average 12"-18".

 

[Camden]

Not to hi-jack the thread or any thing but why are they so un-godly expensive! I used to catch little southern hoggies by the handfull when I live in Florida. I wish I had kept a few! I cant find a western under 80$ and I've seen a few easterns for 89$ at the cheapest.

and for all the hognose snakes that I have ever met wild and captive I personally have NEVER gotten one to strike at me... or at anything. They put on the best little displays though, never seen one play dead either.

bhbreptiles has a normal western hognose for $50

 

[pitbulllady]

I do plan on getting some of these, but I'm curious about a few things, such as feeding.
I read somewhere that they eat rodents in the wild, and I'm sure a full grown snake will eat pre-killed adult mice is captivity, but how do they naturally kill their rodent prey? I'm not at all planning to feed my snakes live rodents unless necessary, (rather a last resort, really, meaning if all else fails) but I do like to know the nature of pets. (Which is why I was nagging everyone in my other thread)
So, do they chew on the mice, swallow them alive, kill them like a lion does, or what?
Also, can someone post pics of the several morphs available? Not all searches on the Net bring up good results. (especially since Google has the new crappy search thing which gives me results for lizard when I Googled snake...)
What has to be your favorite morph? And what is their staple, natural food item? Can they swim decently and do they eat fish? (Probably a no on that one, lol)

P.S. I don't know if you all know this, but hognoses don't produce venom and aren't venomous, at least this species anyway. They have toxins in their saliva, though, that affect Anurans.

The thing that Hognoses get their toxins from toads is a MYTH, no truth to it at all. Hognoses are TRUE rear-fanged venomous snakes; they have well-developed Duvernoy's glands, so they are classified as Opistoglyph snakes. Not too long ago I posted a link to a series of photos detailing a guy's reaction to a prolonged feeding-response bite from his Western Hogs, and it was pretty bad, as bad as the Copperhead bite I got as a kid, in terms of swelling and discoloration. Dr. Bryan Frye has extensively studied American Hognoses and confirmed that they are indeed venomous, as are Garters and Water Snakes and many of the small fossorial snakes like Ringnecks and Crowned Snakes.

pitbulllady