Who doesn't love hogs?

[Jmugleston]

My wife thinks they are "cute" so when a male came in on trade.....there was only one option. Trade for a couple girls as well. Here they are in their hog nosed, wanna-be viper, stubby snake glory.

This girl is tiny. Literally right out of the egg.

And the new male:

Doing his best rattlesnake impression complete with angular shaped head and slow tongue flicking:

And the new female:

 

[Widowman10]

very cute! just love little hogs! what are you feeding at that size? are they taking very small pinkies?

 

[xchondrox]

I have 3.3 of these guys and love them! Just remember they have a pretty high metabolism and will do better if fed smaller meals twice a week vs. one big meal. My biggest female is around 3ft, i love the fact that they act so tuff always makes me laugh when im working with my big female.

I have
1.0 bhb (orange) albino breeder
1.1 red phase het albino breeders
0.1 big normal girl
1.1 normal yearlings

Have fun with them i hope they do great for you!

 

[Jmugleston]

I have 3.3 of these guys and love them! Just remember they have a pretty high metabolism and will do better if fed smaller meals twice a week vs. one big meal. My biggest female is around 3ft, i love the fact that they act so tuff always makes me laugh when im working with my big female.

I have
1.0 bhb (orange) albino breeder
1.1 red phase het albino breeders
0.1 big normal girl
1.1 normal yearlings

Have fun with them i hope they do great for you!

I used to have a number of these when I worked more with colubrids in the late '90s early 2000s. I sold them all off back then, but always wished I would have kept some of my bigger breeder girls.

 

[Teal]

One of my most favourite species!! They are too friggin cute

 

[the toe cutter]

Nice

I am a Heterodon fan, but I like the Leioheterodon much better! Heres my 16mo old female.

 

[Terry D]

Heterodon- Sadly, another genus that has all but entirely disappeared from Caddo and Bossier parishes in nw La .

The last I saw was a roadkill some 10 years or so ago. They used to be frequently found along the Red River and neighboring upland areas. I rarely hear people mention "spreading adder", as they are colloquially known, any more..............

 

[OldHag]

mmmmm hogs!! Quite possibly the cutest snake out there!!
Tri-colored hogs excluded. Nothing tops those.

 

[Galapoheros]

Neat snakes! congrats. Don't want to change the topic and I know they like mice. But I remember some controversy over some toad-eating Heterodon puncturing toad lungs. It's true, they do with big toads, I've seen it several times. They work each side of big toads, scraping and finally puncturing, air-bubbles coming out, psshhhhhhhhh, gulp. Obvious to me they are trying to instinctively puncture and not simply trying to swallow. If I get into snakes again, I'm getting those Jmugleston.

 

[the toe cutter]

Heterodon platirhinos and simus are almost exclusively toad eaters, and H nasicus are as well but will eat small mammals, newts and other amphibians in the wild if more abundant. That being said, I have never seen any wild caught Heterodon instinctively take mice. They must be acclimated to it slowly. Captive bred westerns who have been fed mice since hatching normally don't have an issue, but sometimes will. That is why they are far more common in the US pet trade than the other 2 which I must say are far more brightly colored and impressive Xenodontids. But they are VERY DIFFICULT to get to eat anything but toads, even as captive bred specimens. Now Heterodons have a particular protein strain in their venom that is far more focused and effective on toads than rodents, and their relative immunity to bufotoxin and the shape and size of their rear fangs to puncture the lungs and air sacs of toads does pretty much point to the fact that in the wild, all 3 North American Heterodon ARE NATURALLY toad eaters! I'm sure I will get some who will argue with me for no other real reason than their CB Western Hognose has eaten mice with no problem, and that is because they are completely ignorant to what I am saying. I didn't mention H. n. kennerlyi because they are not that common in the US.

 

[the toe cutter]

some more good info

According to studies conducted by numerous researchers and reported by Platt, throughout its range, amphibians made up 57% of the total diet while the rest consisted of reptiles and their eggs, birds, and mammals. Of the 57% of the amphibians consumed, approximately 88% were toads, representing only 50% of the total diet. Ruthven also reported instances where western hognosed snakes attempted to eat ornate box turtles. Pretty neat stuff!

 

[Galapoheros]

Interesting info, that's even less amphs that I suspected for H. nasicus. And yeah, never was able to get H. plantirhinos to eat anything other that toads/frogs, and I tried just to see if I could do it, just not their nature so that's good thing, would be bad for them. Also, H. nasicus seems to be a faster striker to me, seems more alert to me than platirhinos, so I'd say more adept at catching things other than toads, toads can tend to freeze up and puff up, easy pickens, but not every time. I guess it's better to not to be too picky where they range though you can come across 100's of Spadefoots if the weather is right in their range, it's pretty rough, if it moves, eat it lol.

 

[whitewolf]

Nice man. I have really taking a liking to them. One day I'll get Hamlet a little girl to play with.