Thinking about getting a Hog nose snake

I am thinking about getting a Hog nose snake but I have never owned a snake before can you guys help me?

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I made a thread when I was considering getting a hognose snake and got tons of help. If it helps, you can go to that thread as well—it should be my top topic under my profile at the moment :D! You definitely came to the right place, though; everyone’s super helpful and supportive when you’re getting a new reptile! :laughing:

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One piece of information that I did not see mentioned in @dolls_sweet_exoticsss thread is a stark feeding difference between males and females.
Aside from the size difference, males have a tendency to go off feeding in the spring during breeding season and sometimes again in the fall. I just went through this with my 7 adult males who refused to eat the last few weeks.
So if you are leaning to a male just be prepared to have a lot of patience during these times as they are thinking only about the ladies, not food.

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I don’t produce many hognose, but I sell them mostly to less-than-super-experienced keepers.

One of the biggest issues that first time snake keepers (of any species) have is that the snake fails to feed. Often this is due to inadequate housing – wrong temps (usually, too cold), wrong enclosure type (usually, glass and/or screen top) are the most common factors.

With hognose, these factors are also a consideration, but then you need to add in two facts. One is that hogs are the most common captive snake species that’s not a natural rodent feeder. Breeders often have to use non-rodent foods and flavors to convince hatchlings that rodents are food, and ideally a hognose will be well established on non-scented frozen thawed mice at the time of sale. Once they’re established on rodents, backsliding (to flavored food) is way, way more rare than novice keepers might be led to believe.

The other is that hognose snakes eat when they want to, and this can be the sort of ‘want’ that a particularly challenging three year old human might have. They might only want to eat one very specific thing that’s pretty hard to guess (I have one lately that was waiting for peach fuzzy mice, brained and most importantly presented sideways on a tongs). They might decide to eat nothing for a good long while. They might want to eat everything – rodents, the tongs, your hand, the water bowl when you replace it in the enclosure.

So adding this all up, you have a species that has typical sensitivities to captive conditions, that may or may not eat depending on the demons in its tiny head, and that some people might try to get feeding again with all sorts of odd things (prepared scents, live frogs, who knows), and that has a “psychology” that’s not all that readable.

I tend to recommend hognose as a second or third snake species, so that the keeper can get a good (year, at least) baseline understanding of snakes before attempting to keep one that throws curveballs. Lots of experience with other non-snake reptiles would be good background instead, I suppose – learning how to match a species to ideal captive parameters (not some version of ‘slice of their wild habitat’, since that’s pretty much nonsense), learning how to read when feeding issues are environmental vs medical vs just expected.

First time keepers can and often enough are successful keeping hognose (and by ‘successful’, I just mean ‘they don’t kill it’). But it tends to take a lot of research first, then asking questions to clarify. Watch videos, read old forum posts (but don’t necro them), talk to breeders at expos, research the pros and cons of various enclosures/heat sources/thermostats. Figure out who has good advice and who is a huckster. And so on.

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Ok thank you

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I do not think I have heard a more apt description for a hoggie in all my days LOL

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My girl is a character, and I know it is pretty common among hogs, especially the younger ones.

Usually, I get hissing, mock strikes, cobra pose, and coiling- all the good stuff- when I open her tub lid. My girl also has an insane food response to mice (which is much better than hating them). She would literally come charging at me, mouth open, and bite the first thing she saw during feeding time.

They also poop a lot, and their production stinks real bad. So be ready to clean a few days after feeding. My girl also has the habit of smearing the brown stuff all over the place, and I have to switch to paper towels to prevent GLOBAL contamination.

All that said, she is super cute, and you get to see her a lot because she’s quite active while you are awake. She is very fun to handle, and I hope her temperament improves over time, since she is still pretty young. If you prefer a super chill pet that takes up less time, I have heard house snakes and rosy boas are pretty good. Sticking with a ball python and boa constrictor if you have a larger space is also good,

If you want something