Tell me everything you know about Hognose snakes...

[anatess]

2 months ago, my husband brought home our first ball python. Before that, I was deathly scared of snakes. But now, I'm in love with them and has finally gotten comfortable with them that I can handle them all by myself now. Yippee... Well then, my husband wants to know if he can get my son a hognose snake. Man, I was getting really good at the ball pythons, I've read everything I can find on them... now I have to learn about hognoses! Well, for some reason, there is no caresheet here... I read some general stuff out there on the internet but I find some conflicting information - feed mice, feed toads, feed crickets, feed live, feed pre-killed, etc. etc... I'm starting to get confused. There's eastern, western, mexican, dusty and they all seem like different sub-species and not just color morphs...

So, I'm asking anybody out here to please help me out!

Here is what I know so far. Please correct any mis-information.
1.) they have venom but they don't bite for self-defense. venom is only injected during feeding after some "chewing action". I translate this to "you are more likely to get bit by your ball python than your hognose". Correct?

2.) females go to up to 3 feet, males are more likely to stay under 2 feet.

3.) they are opportunistic feeders, meaning, they would rather eat dead stuff than have to kill the prey themselves. they eat all kinds of dead stuff, not just rodents. but, in captivity, they can live solely on mice (will they eat ASFs? I have a colony of those for my ball pythons). An adult hognose would need a large mouse once a week?

4.) they have a brumation period from October to December and will not eat for those 3 months.

5.) they need the same temperature gradient and humidity as ball pythons until October when the temperatures need to be lowered to 70-80 for brumation.

6.) no UVB requirements

7.) can live all their lives very comfortably in a 20 gallon long enclosure.

8.) need hides and waterbowl just like a ball python.

9.) need a deep substrate they can burrow in (aspen or reptile sand).

10.) My 7-year-old and 5-year-old sons will be completely safe handling a hognose.

11.) they poop a lot and stink to high heaven. we have hamsters, so this is probably not going to be a problem if it is true.

12.) a western hognose is easier to feed than any other kind of hognose.

What did I miss? Oh, I read about their "antics" like hissing like a cobra or rattlesnake and striking close-mouthed and playing dead (what a wierd snake!).

Thank you for your help!

[Patrick Long]

Here is what I know so far. Please correct any mis-information.

10.) My 7-year-old and 5-year-old sons will be completely safe handling a hognose.

How do you know this?

[Colin Vestrand]

the kids will be safe, but will your hognose? haha... j/k
my two year old handles ours... but as pat alluded to, ya never know. although i've never seen Heterodon bite.
everything else looks good... they are extremely easy to keep, but can be finnicky eaters at times.

[Patrick Long]

I hear its like bees, If your allergic, you can be in some serious hurt/trouble

[spk329]

Check this link out......Safe with the kids?

http://www.herpnet.net/bite/

[wilomn]

Check this link out......Safe with the kids?

http://www.herpnet.net/bite/

You do realize that the idiot from that article let the snake CHEW on him for 3 to 5 minutes.

Don't you?

If you want to sight stupid people as a source of good information you will not look too good yourself.

Would you let a bee sting you for five minutes just to see what happened? How about a fire ant? Maybe use a magnifying glass on your finger to see what the results would be.

I've got a couple of big females that are like Sandworms from Dune, always with mouths open ready to chomp until you take them out and they calm down and close their gaping maws. Were one of those to nail me when expecting food and to then be allowed to continue to excrete venom into me for 5 bloody minutes then I'm sure I too would have an adverse reaction.

Duh

However, I've never been bitten, in many years of keeping, by a western hognose.

[LostNFound]

i had a worse reaction to a cat bite that lasted 2 secs

[anatess]

My source of information was all the things I gathered off the internet which may/may not be accurate. That's why I'm asking you guys.

What about the other stuff? Especially feeding? I found out the hognose my husband is interested in is a Western hognose.

I also found somewhere on the internet that you can keep 2 hognose snakes in a 20 gallon tank or 3 in a 30 gallon tank. So, I'm beginning to wonder if these guys live in social groups?

[wilomn]

I've kept and bred them in groups for many years. I've kept them alone for just as long.

Both ways work fine but I'd recommend keeping them solo until you get some experience with them.

They're great snakes.

[anatess]

Do you know if they'll eat any kind of rodent?
I have an ASF colony for my bp... will they eat that? Do you have to pre-kill the rodent? Can they live solely on rodent and nothing else or will they need supplemental toads or something?
Sorry for the million questions...