intersted in breeding hognoses

hey guys mark here

im very interested in breeding hognoses i think that there amazing looking snakes

was just wondering any useful tips and there sizes that they can grow too

and dietry etc :) :)

much appreciated guys and gals mark

I fully agree, they are pretty cool looking. Marty (Jonty on the forum) has kept these for years as well as Buddy and Ciaran so hopefully someone will be able to offer some sound advice and tips soon :)

Hi Mark

Western hognoses are a fantastic species to keep, i've had them for a good few years now, they were one of the first species of snake that i owned and still to this day remain one of my favourite species.

they stay small males grow to about 2 feet and females to between 2 and 3 feet. They don't need huge housing, i keep mine in 50L rub's although you could probably get away with smaller, i just like to give them a little more room because they are quite active snakes. Give them plenty of substrate, nice and deep as they like to burrow in it, i have tried several different substrates

terrabasyx

this is a mixture of eco earth and calci sand, it was very expensive and verry messy

eco earth

much cheaper than the above but still messy

aspen

this was good for them to burrow in and easy to clean but i was worried about them ingesting it during feeding and becoming impacted so i stopped using it.

these days i used hemp based horse bedding called hemcore, it's really cheap i only paid £11.50 for a huge bail no complains so far.


mine always went off their food a bit during the winter more so the male than the female. it took a while to get them up to a decent weight for breeding, the recommended weight to start breeding which is 250g to 300g
i got my female up to 260g and tried breeding but i had terrible trouble with the female, she ended up egg bound, i thought i had got all of the eggs out of her but 2 days later i found her dead in the viv perhaps it took too much out of her so i'd recommend waiting until the female is at leas 300g before trying to breed.

if you need any more info feel free to ask. Buddy may be able to give you more information as he has had more success with the breeding aspect than i have



Marty

size wise males average at 2 foot, females around 3 though buddy has a giant female from the states that has to be the biggest hoggie iv ever seen

hoggies are great snakes, my two are on adult mice at the moment as both are just about the two foot mark. the female is able for two adult mice and will take them if offered where the male will only eat one. they do have a habit of going on hunger strike for weeks at a time just for the fun of it.

they have fab personalities and think they are massive, my male does a great cobra dance, he flattens his neck and angles his head then wobbles from side to side hissing like a manic till he falls over. they can be a bit hissy in the viv and do tend to strike some of the time but in general its with a closed mouth but you need to be aware that they are rear-fanged and do have a venom of sorts that you could potentially be allergic to but from what iv seen the bites on the net that look really bad are from people who let the hoggie chew on them for a number of minutes.

my first snake was my hoggie and they are deffo my favourite snake closely followed by my sonoran. im sure others will be along with more info than iv given and much of mine is from personal experience with my own hoggies. good luck with it if you decide to do it, once mine are old enough i plan to breed them myself

thats great guys thanks

appreciate the advice and defo interested in breeding them :)

what would be best for breeding though?

like two males and three female?

what are they like price wise?

western eastern and alino?

Normals are quite cheap, i've seen neonates ranging from £50-£70 from private sellers and i've seen tyhem ranging form £100-£120 in shops. albino's ranging from £250-£350 and for red albino's which are much nicer imho £400+

as for numbers i'd go far a pair or a male and 2 females, something like that

really :O thats alot for an albino lol ill probs just get normals :)

thanks jonty much appreciated

No Problem Mark, anytime, Thats what we're here for

Aside from all the fantastic advice given here, I would also carefully consider that you can be left with young 'uns for a considerable length of time.

Get yourself a male and a female, house separately until they're old enough to breed and count yourself lucky if you break even on the cost price of keeping, housing, heating the parents all year with sales from the young. There's no profit in snake breeding unless you're doing it on an enormous scale, so beware of the large costs you may incur.

More than 1 pair will mean more offspring, but also means more costs and can also become more huge costs in unexpected vet bills when thinking of all the things that can go wrong. Something as simple as egg binding can become a very expensive problem very quickly.

Remember also that as above, you can be stuck with offspring. Folks don't have money these days and stuff is hanging about on the classifieds of the Irish forums and classified websites even when it's going for peanuts...

Sorry for raining on the parade folks, just inputting :)

"Get yourself a male and a female, house separately until they're old enough to breed and count yourself lucky if you break even on the cost price of keeping, housing, heating the parents all year with sales from the young. There's no profit in snake breeding unless you're doing it on an enormous scale, so beware of the large costs you may incur.

More than 1 pair will mean more offspring, but also means more costs and can also become more huge costs in unexpected vet bills when thinking of all the things that can go wrong. Something as simple as egg binding can become a very expensive problem very quickly."

Now thats a nail on head post right there, full of reality checks that most people only hit AFTER they've bred snakes. A lot of people bang on about 'snake breeders making money' and the funny thing is most of them have never bred a snake (or any animal) before! If only they did, their illusions would be shattered instantly and without drive and a passion for the snakes they keep, their interest in snakes and breeding soon wanes and disappears.

Sorry to detract from the thread slightly.....theres lots of great advice in the posts above Mark, choose animals that you like personally and breed for the fun and experience of it, oh and not forgetting you also get to holdback the nicest babies for yourself.....and you won't go wrong. Hognoses are great little snakes and full of character so I can see the appeal!

if your wondering on what size they grow to and what to feed them, i would try researching just keeping them first and after having them then decide if you want to breed, you'll need a lot more then just the basics of keeping if you want to cool them, put them on a feeding regime incubate eggs, raise up possibly finicky and delicate babies etc.... its a lot more to think about rather then just 'how big, how much, what cage, what size food'.

i agree with everyone here :) thanks for the advice guys ive always loved the little hognoses for there actual skeletal shape with there skull and how the head forms to the neck down the body :) i find them extremly fascinating :) there are a few animals i would love to get in to and hognoses are amoung them aswel as african hedgehogs :')

but only time will tell when im ready for now im going to focus on learning about my boas then move on to hognoses and if im confident enough ill move on to the hedgehogs :)

thanks for the advice guys!!!!

Some great advice here for anybody looking into hoggies....also remember that these little nut jobs are rear fanged and bites can occur when least expected.
We have been lucky this year and sold all but our hold back hogs but what the others said is very true..... Don't try breeding unless you have a bit of spare space and time on your hands and be prepared for a few heartbreaks along the way
All this aside I can only recommend these little American characters to everyone who wants a small snake with a massive attitude....we love them here