Hognose: The good, bad and ugly....

[Jus1More]

This is all of you Hognose snake owners. Getting a hognose is on my list of snakes, but I've heard many stories about them that keeps me sitting on the fence. Although you can't help but to love that adorable stuck up nose.

So if you own one of these cuties with an attitude, tell me about yours and the good, bad and ugly they display

[Zincubus]

They are possibly the second cutest of all snakes after Rhino Nosed Rat snakes ..
Being hypersensitive to just about everything I can't risk having one ( or more) due to them being rear-fanged and mildly venomous ...



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[Stewart_Reptiles]

The good

Great snake, easy to care for, fun personality, fantastic feeders (females)

The bad

The are venomous and while they are not prone to bite (I am usually a bite magnet and never been bit by a hog) it is something to keep in mind because even though the venom is mild and the delivery method is poor reaction vary from an individual to another.

Unreliable feeders (males)

[the_rotten1]

I second everything Deborah has said. They're great pets, very active and full of personality. The girls eat like pigs, but I've had no luck getting my boy off live and onto f/t. I hope I can before he gets big enough to eat hoppers. Hognose snakes don't constrict, they just chomp, so I'd prefer not to feed anything big enough to cause damage.

...and unlike Deborah I have been bitten a few times. Usually because I forget to wash my hands after handling the mice I breed. Out of those few times, only one broke skin (hungry girl, she latched onto my finger and chewed until I got to the nearest sink).

I had no reaction to the venom. If someone assaulted my finger with a thumbtack I think it would do more damage then her fangs did.

[Tila]

I started out with hognoses when a breeder gave me a very kinked hatchling a couple of years ago. She lived a year and a half before passing naturally, and even though I have a corn snake and ball pythons I missed her so much I recently picked up a pair of hatchlings. This pair is already super fast compared to Kinky, the kinked hog, but they all have seemed to be pleasantly engaging. Also, when they're grown up I'll be able to use the same prey size mice as my corn snake, but they are my only snakes on shredded aspen (a tiny amount currently, lol.)

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[artgecko]

I had feeding issues with my male. Started off eating f/t pinkies (unscented) as advertised by the breeder. Within ~3 months, he decided that he was deathly afraid of tongs / hands and thus, would no longer take non-moving f/t prey. I got him to take live rat pinks a few times (which I didn't regularly have available) so I ended up rehoming him to someone who produced live for him and he is now doing fine. With me, he got into pretty much starvation condition due to constant feeding strikes, etc. so I was glad to place him with someone who could produce live regularly to feed him.

Due to that experience, I haven't been back for another try lol. If I do, I'll go with a well-established juvie female that is eating unscented f/t in hopes that she will be a good feeder.

On the good side, they are cute and active and seem to be pretty hardy.

Mine never bit, so I can't attest to how I'd react to the venom.

[Jus1More]

I had feeding issues with my male. Started off eating f/t pinkies (unscented) as advertised by the breeder. Within ~3 months, he decided that he was deathly afraid of tongs / hands and thus, would no longer take non-moving f/t prey. I got him to take live rat pinks a few times (which I didn't regularly have available) so I ended up rehoming him to someone who produced live for him and he is now doing fine. With me, he got into pretty much starvation condition due to constant feeding strikes, etc. so I was glad to place him with someone who could produce live regularly to feed him.

Due to that experience, I haven't been back for another try lol. If I do, I'll go with a well-established juvie female that is eating unscented f/t in hopes that she will be a good feeder.

On the good side, they are cute and active and seem to be pretty hardy.

Mine never bit, so I can't attest to how I'd react to the venom.

My I ask what you mean by "unscented" prey? Is it just like the mice and or rats you buy at the pet stores??

[Stewart_Reptiles]

My I ask what you mean by "unscented" prey? Is it just like the mice and or rats you buy at the pet stores??

People refer to scented or unscented with hognose because many hatchlings have to be started on scented prey, this describe the process of scenting a pinky mouse with egg, tuna, chicken, or salmon etc to get them started with their first few meals.

When you buy an hatchling that feeds on unscented prey this mean all you have to offer is a mouse.

I do not recommend buying an hatchling unless it eats unscented prey and is well started.

[artgecko]

People refer to scented or unscented with hognose because many hatchlings have to be started on scented prey, this describe the process of scenting a pinky mouse with egg, tuna, chicken, or salmon etc to get them started with their first few meals.

When you buy an hatchling that feeds on unscented prey this mean all you have to offer is a mouse.

I do not recommend buying an hatchling unless it eats unscented prey and is well started.

Exactly what she said. I forget where I saw it, but one of the main breeders of morph hogs was interviewed in a video and he showed the host some scenting items in his freezer... a frog, toad, lizard, chicken, and I think he also noted that he had ever used tuna / salmon. You rub the prey item with the scented item to fool the hog into eating it as they natural eat frogs / lizards in the wild.

[Craiga 01453]

To start, I agree with a lot of what has been said already.

My boy, Cosmo came to me unexpectedly after a former coworker asked me to try to get him to eat. Apparently he was over a year old and had never eaten for her in the six months she had him and had only eaten once in a few months for the previous owner. So I agreed to try to get him eating for my coworker and once established she would take him back. Well, cruising over the details, she was fired and disappeared. After a few months of her barely replying to texts, etc... I kinda assumed I'd end up keeping him.

I'm super stoked it worked out the way it did. Cosmo is an awesome little snake. He came to me at 11 grams in late March and by mid August he had hit 40 grams and was doing well.
However, he went of food for a bit... until last night!!! He actually ate last night for the first time in 4 weeks. I wasn't sweating it, just figured he was a male hognose doing what they do.

All in all, my experience with Cosmo has been great. He's an adorable little goofball with tons of personality. He handles extremely well and has shown no real defensive behaviors that can be common from what I've read. He will occasionally puff up his neck, but has never struck, rattled his tail at me or even hissed at me. He will hiss and fake strike at his prey sometimes when I'm putting it into his enclosure using tongs, then I just leave it and he eats a few minutes later (with the exception of his feeding strike).

So, in closing, I would advocate for adding a hognose to the family as long as you're aware of the rear-fangs and extremely mild venom and horrible delivery system. That said, I have read of VERY few hognose bites and even fewer bites that resulted in any adverse reaction.

I will definitely be adding another hognose to my family at some point.