Quote Originally Posted by mainbutter View Post
1) What morphs are out there? Anything affordable? I'd love an anaconda or albino but the one website I checked out had them in the thousand+ price range, not what I'm looking for.

2) How do you sex hoggies? Probing? Another method? Can it be done right out of the egg? They're so tiny as neonates I can't imagine probing being easy.

3) Personality. From what I've read bites from these guys are extremely rare(many strikes are even "mock" strikes), but are neonates nippy like many other snake species? Are CB western hoggies "showy" by nature? I'd almost kind of like one that hisses and puffs up a bit lol.. The few wild encounters I've had have been neat.
I know this seems totally late, and I'm not even sure if you have them or not or don't even want Hogs anymore and such, but I have nothing better to do right now and I'm just going to answer this anyway :]..

1- Hogs come in quite a few morphs like Anaconda, Snow, Albino, Caramel ghost (think it's something like that..), Axanthic, Jungle Phase Axanthic, Ghost, Caramel, and that's all I know of at the moment. Though, if you want to get something pretty cheap and don't want to feed frogs/toads or lizards to every once in a while, I would suggest just getting a Western Hognose. They stay smaller than most Hognose snakes too. Males only max to 20 inches, and females can get a good 30 inches (record).

2- I learned that when they are small the best way to tell is by tail length. Females will have a short and stubby tail, while males have a longer tail that tapers. I happened to get that long tapered tail male on Saturday, so my 10 gallon will last him his entire life.

3- Their personality is so great. They are very nice snakes, but usually a bit shy when young. The young ones will most likely play dead as the older Hogs will hiss, "mock strike", and hood out like a cobra. Though, they are very friendly snakes and great for a first time snake owner. Being bitten does happen rarely; they are more likely to bump you with their nose than bite you. And if you do get bitten, take it off right away and do not let it chew on you. The chewing is to keep on pumping saliva into you, and if your allergic to the saliva it would not be a good thing at all. So if you get bit, take it off right away to prevent it from sinking the rear fangs into you. And like I said, the babies will put out more for the playing dead display rather than adults, but if your snake is used to human contact and being handled it will rarely play dead or do any defense mechanisms.