Anyone here breed Western Hognoses?

[Razaiel]

I am interested in breeding my female next year but am worried about the size difference, plus I've been reading the thread on the BP forum about snakes eating each other and is due to stress.

My female I bought as an adult and she does have a history of eating her partner (males are so small!!!) they (pet shop) had to drag her partner out of her literally he was part way in (he survived )

I've never bred snakes before and thought my hoggy would be a good place to start as she's a mature female.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[joepythons]

I am interested in breeding my female next year but am worried about the size difference, plus I've been reading the thread on the BP forum about snakes eating each other and is due to stress.

My female I bought as an adult and she does have a history of eating her partner (males are so small!!!) they (pet shop) had to drag her partner out of her literally he was part way in (he survived )

I've never bred snakes before and thought my hoggy would be a good place to start as she's a mature female.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I do not breed them,allthough it sounds like the were putting the male in with her at the wrong times.I have a freind that breeds hognose(not sure on type) and i will ask him about this problem.It might take me a day or two before i get back to you.

[Razaiel]

Thank you very much, Joe! Being a reptile store I don't think they were too fussy about their animals - in fact I think the two were in together pretty much most of the time and could have been the stressed out factor that Adam mentioned can happen with snakes in the cannibal python thread.

[joepythons]

Thank you very much, Joe! Being a reptile store I don't think they were too fussy about their animals - in fact I think the two were in together pretty much most of the time and could have been the stressed out factor that Adam mentioned can happen with snakes in the cannibal python thread.

Razaiel, i just spoke to another freind that does breed the western hogs and he told me a few things to pass onto you.First of course keep them seperate from each other.Second he said she ate the males because she was not fed properly.He said to feed them a little bigger item up until you place them in brumation.Then when you bring them out of brumation feed the female triple of the rodents she eat(instead of one mouse feed three) and the male double.Do this until about a month and stop feeding the male but proceed feeding the female until you are ready to place them together for breeding.Then place the female in with the male and watch them.They should lock up rather quickly,if not remove the female and wait a couple days.He also stated the reason she ate the male is he more then likely smelled like a rodent,so she did what her instinct told her to do.I think i have everything correct like he told me,i will double check with him later tonight.I hope this helps you succed on breeding her .

[Colin Vestrand]

i'm in the same boat as you... i hope to breed next season and i've been reading up a lot.

i know casey lazik actually lost one of his prized males the last time he bred his hogs (says on his website i believe). everyone i've talked to says its not as common as you may think, but there's two obvious considerations. one, make sure the female feeds very heavily, and two, if you have a big aggressive female then you want to pair her with the biggest male you have.

personally i dont think the girl eating the boy has anything to do with smelling like a rodent... i think if she's breeding then she KNOWS she's going to need her nutrients and is going to do whatever it takes to make sure she's set for whats ahead of her.

[joepythons]

i'm in the same boat as you... i hope to breed next season and i've been reading up a lot.

i know casey lazik actually lost one of his prized males the last time he bred his hogs (says on his website i believe). everyone i've talked to says its not as common as you may think, but there's two obvious considerations. one, make sure the female feeds very heavily, and two, if you have a big aggressive female then you want to pair her with the biggest male you have.

personally i dont think the girl eating the boy has anything to do with smelling like a rodent... i think if she's breeding then she KNOWS she's going to need her nutrients and is going to do whatever it takes to make sure she's set for whats ahead of her.

Well the reason i mentioned the possibility of her eating the male because he might have smelled like a rodent ,was because if she was not in the breeding mood then she thought he was food.My freind did also mention to find a male bigger then her and see how that goes.He also mentioned someone losing his prized male so that might have been Casey Lazik he was talking about.Wow what a loss

[Razaiel]

Thank you very much for your efforts on this, Joe - it's greatly appreciated. And thank you, too KZooHerpetoculturalist - guess we'll be trying this together next year.

I thought it would be a good idea to make sure she's EXTREMELY well fed - but 3 mice in a go - wow - that's a lot. She currently eats a medium mouse once every 10 days so could she actually eat 3 in one go without regurging?

One thing I wondered was, when is the best timing of all this breeding? (She never brumated last year but it was the first time I had her and ate every week without fail - I assume when brumating they don't eat?). None of my reptiles have ever brumated, even my beardie. When does the brumating season start? (Sorry, Im totally new to this aspect of looking after them).

My idea also was to find the largest male I can; they're not that common here in the UK, the only male I ever saw I thought the reptile guy was kidding me when he said it was a male - I thought it was a Juvie.

[joepythons]

Thank you very much for your efforts on this, Joe - it's greatly appreciated. And thank you, too KZooHerpetoculturalist - guess we'll be trying this together next year.

I thought it would be a good idea to make sure she's EXTREMELY well fed - but 3 mice in a go - wow - that's a lot. She currently eats a medium mouse once every 10 days so could she actually eat 3 in one go without regurging?

One thing I wondered was, when is the best timing of all this breeding? (She never brumated last year but it was the first time I had her and ate every week without fail - I assume when brumating they don't eat?). None of my reptiles have ever brumated, even my beardie. When does the brumating season start? (Sorry, Im totally new to this aspect of looking after them).

My idea also was to find the largest male I can; they're not that common here in the UK, the only male I ever saw I thought the reptile guy was kidding me when he said it was a male - I thought it was a Juvie.

I will talk to my freind and find out when he starts his brumation period.As far as feeding her try to feed her every 7 days.When you feed her the one medium mouse does it show as a lump in her body? If not then she can handle a larger meal.I will mention it also that you are in the UK and how they are not common.

[Colin Vestrand]

you should probably order the back issue of reptiles that features the western hognose... it was written by the guy who started West Texas Reptiles ( www.albinohognose.com ) who is pretty much the original pioneer of western morphs.

i believe you can find a link to it on his website but it talks about brumation, feeding, breeding, natural history, etc. VERY good article. as for their brumation period, it doesnt need to be long at all... everything i've read says they're easy to breed and some females will even do two clutches a year.

[Razaiel]

Thanks for the link - actually I've been considering getting an albino - but those hypomelantistics look awesome. They seem cheaper in the US - here in the UK an adult albino was going for £1000 (prob. about $1400 at a guess). What would I get if I crossed an albino or hypo with a normal? Would any of the babies come out hypo or just be het to hypo?

There isn't much of a lump actually after she's fed - perhaps I should start feeding her weekly? I just don't want to overfeed and always thought that once snakes reach a year the feeding reduces to every 10 days, and when they're 2 once every 2 weeks. She certainly isn't thin