Playing dead?

Hi! I have 2 ball pythons, and I'd like to get another snake sometime soon :) I've always loved hognoses and there's only one little thing stopping me, that they play dead. And that'd scare me to death lol. So if anyone could shed (Heh get it? Shed? Snakes? Ok :stupidme:) some light on that that'd be great :P Thank you!

Even wild caught animals will drop the feign death act after a very short time in captivity. It shouldn't be an issue for you.

While it's a defense mechanism that they are good at, I can tell you that in captivity this is not something you happen to see very often.

I have owned and work with hognose for 6 years now and I have only witness them doing this 3 times (twice from the same animal), in each case they were very young (hatchling out of the egg and same later that week and hatchling upon being received), I have never had any of my adult doing this.

Not much to be freaked out about but something very funny to watch ;)

http://i68.tinypic.com/fmt2d2.jpg

http://i64.tinypic.com/2cy1emg.jpg

http://i66.tinypic.com/4g6t5s.jpg

I also think if you specifically ask the breeder for a calm and inquisitive individual (it's not that uncommon to find), you won't see it do all those defensive things hognose are known for.

A friend just got a juvie hognose as her first snake a couple months ago, and she is actually the calmest little snake I've ever met. Not spooked by anything!

Also, hognose don't play dead very well. If you flip them over, they'll flip themselves right back, and you'll know they're alive :D LOL

Thank you so much guys :D I think I'll defiantly look into the them :D