Hognose advice

Well, i caught my wife during a moment of weakness and got here to let me and the kid get a snake. i'm gonna surprise him with it and he has no idea.

anyway, we were at the petstore and she saw some baby cornsnakes and thought they were cute (she is afraid of snakes) and mentioned we should surprise daniel with one, i figured i might as well take it a step further and get the type i've been wanting, a western hognose.

So i sent out payment today on a male from Jay Fischer down in florida (Thanks guys! can't wait to get him) and now i need to get his home ready to go.

i live in montana, so the temps should be close to what he would normally live in during the summer, but winter i'll have to be careful. Any recomendations on how i should set up his first home? should i use undertank heating hooked up to a thermostat or would a heat lamp be good enough. my housemate says i should use a heat rock that they better, but i said in no uncertain terms that it isn't an option. seen pics of burnt snakes from them.

i guess i'm a little nervous. i'm gonna go to the petstore tomarrow and get everything i need so i'll be prepared.. but i've never owned a snake before and i don't want to screw anything up.:P

I had a hognose as a child! I live in Florida and I caught mine. He was an AWESOME pet. I caught toads for him in my backyard :)

BTW, Montana is gorgeous... lucky you.

I keep my Westerns around 84 degrees, although when I was a kid I kept one at room temp for years with no issues.

Most Hogs are pigs once they get going, so you shouldn't have much of a problem. Just make sure they can burrow.

Mid to upper 80's,undertank w/thermostat,aspen to burrow

http://www.hognose.com/pages/care/west.htm