Hello again

Ah! Good choice. Love the little hognose that glares at me daily. Still trying to get him to eat regularly tho. But I've only had him for a month.

Geckos Etc has a pretty good selection of Hognoses.

I think it took me nearly 3 months to get my hoggie eating regularly and completely switched to frozen thawed prey items. Worth it though!

Both the hogs on the SMR site are established FT feeders from 2014, not hatchlings.

I think it's mostly because my guy is a little bit of a nervous fellow. He does feed on F/T no problem.

and I've only had him for a month.

Thanks everyone. I am still looking. I am just a little hesitant to buy online. Having to rely on breeder to be honest....

Google Don Soderberg. South Mountain Reptiles. Rest easy. He's authored a book, posts on this site and FC occasionally, been breeding for years, is known internationally. Check out the two hognose snakes on his site under surplus. They are adorable hogs. My Ayasha, ET, and Barry Allen are all from him and they are perfect. And check out his guarantee.
Pet stores can be a nightmare, and you can get scammed at a show. It's really about reputation. We have absolutely stellar breeders on this site, but I don't think anyone I know does hogs...

Don has a great reputation. I looked into him when I was researching palmetto corns. Deborah from Stewart reptiles works with hoggies too. Before I found this forum I was on bp.net and she helped me get my little girl eating. Expos can be great, but there are a lot of flippers there as well who know nothing about what's on their table. It's sad, it didn't used to be that way.

Thanks again Sure wish I could find someone local. I live in Philly and it seems like there would be someone close to me.....

Eavlynn said:

Expos can be great, but there are a lot of flippers there as well who know nothing about what's on their table. It's sad, it didn't used to be that way.

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This annoys the crap out of me. 95% of the corn snakes at Ohio shows seem to be flipped with no records, so they get labeled according to whatever the seller thinks it looks like.

It can be expensive to buy from a large established breeder like SMR or SRCorns, but it's 100% worth the extra money for a quality animal. I have several snakes from both and couldn't be happier with them.

Dragonling said:

This annoys the crap out of me. 95% of the corn snakes at Ohio shows seem to be flipped with no records, so they get labeled according to whatever the seller thinks it looks like.

It can be expensive to buy from a large established breeder like SMR or SRCorns, but it's 100% worth the extra money for a quality animal. I have several snakes from both and couldn't be happier with them.

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It's not just Ohio unfortunately. It seems to be pretty common everywhere you go. I have more vendors that I dislike, than those that I like and respect. I could rant for days!

Back on topic though, I don't know of any breeders in philly that work with hoggies. Your best bet might be to have one shipped. That way you can guarantee that your hoggie is what they advertise it to be, is in good health, and an established feeder.

Hognose is a great choice! Can't wait to see what you end up with!

Don is great of course.
I bought my albino hog from Joe Taffis on Fauna though and had an all around pleasant experience with him. He's actually in Pottsvile, PA. No idea if that's close to you or not but at least in state shipping is usually pretty reasonable, so he might be worth a look.

I've kept at various points in time (currently 19) 25 species of snakes and my hogs are in the top 6 for activity during the day.
They do tend to go on 1 to 6 month feeding strikes once they are over a year old though and start feeling the pull of breeding season. That's normal and nothing to worry about but does tend to freak out new owners at first.
That's for males, females generally fast less but in general, I've found the males to be better pets than the females, minus the tendency to fast. So I'd also recommend a male.

Here is my normal, Atticus.





And the albino from Joe. He actually sired a clutch this year with a local friend's female, so if you were interested, I could put you in touch with my friend who will be selling them, there were both normals and albinos in the clutch. But shipping would probably cost more from here than from either Don or Joe Taffis.

Thank you all for the advice. Tavia I love your hoggies. They are so pretty. I have found a breeder in Ohio that I am working with. He has spent a lot of time with me and I have narrowed down my choice to two different ones. I have to choose one....hmmm decisions They are both anaconda and male. Making my decision tonight, he is holding both for me now. He is going to hold it for me until mid September. so looking forward to the search being over, I have been searching for quite some time.

Mmmm, nice! I love the Anacondas!

HI Tavia. If you don't mind me asking: what is the difference between the normals and the anaconda, they look similar.

It's a codom pattern modifier gene. In the het form, it reduces the pattern, though sometimes only a little, sometimes a lot. As variable as the normals are, sometimes it can be difficult, at least for me, to tell them apart.

Picture of a normal pattern, courtesy of Google.



A picture of a nice het Anaconda. Courtesy of Google.



And when a hognose has two Anaconda genes, homo or Super, it removes nearly all of the pattern, though striped Anacondas and Supercondas exist.
A Superconda, picture courtesy of Google, again.

Wow! That's cool. Do less of a pattern is a anaconda right on down to no pattern equals a super. Thanks Tavia. Have an awesome day

*** So**** in above comment instead of Do...lol

reptilelover said:

HI, it's been a while since I have posted anything on the forum so thought it may be a good time to do that. I do not have a snake yet. When I first started looking I was looking at a corn snake. Well the more I look at snakes the more I get confused as to which type to get. I am definitely attracted to the Hognose and Kenyan Sand Boa (dodo Anery morph). Does anyone on this forum have any experience with the Sand Boa?. I like the idea that they stay on the small side, along with the hognose snake. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks

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I'm late to this thread but since i keep corn, sand (smooth and rough) and hoggies i thought I'd chime in since I see it will be your first snake. I keep a few dozen species and I also do love my hoggies and sand boas.
Sand boas are pretty easy to keep. Even though they are called sand boas it is best not to keep them in sand. Sand boas have the fastest strike out of all my species and they will strike you without hesitation. Their toxic saliva can cause a reaction to your skin. Beginner snake yes but not a very social snake. If you can get them out without a strike then they are docile to hold.
Hognoses (western) got great personalities. personally I prefer a girl over a boy. They like smaller more frequent meals. Boys hunger strikes for a first timer can be stressful. I would put hatchlings and males in the intermediate category and yearling females and older in the beginner category. They say ( I never looked LOL) that they are rear fanged or really enlarged rear teath and have a toxic saliva like a bee sting. If your allergic to bees then you could react to a hoggy bite. I've been chewed on by my very large female albino hoggy with no ill effects other than bleeding haha. I've had reactions to the sand boa saliva but not the hognoses.
Now out of my many species there are ones that I truly have a fascination for like my leucistic pines or my 5 species of beauties but when it comes to interaction, ease of care and a snake that seems to like you too you can't beat a corn snake. All you have to do is read all the great posts by all the corn snake lovers on here. yeah it is a corn snake forum but there is a reason that the corn snake is the #1 colubrid in the world to own and is the best beginner snake to start with. Just cruise around this forum and see

Hmmm ok feeling slightly better knowing it's a thing for year old males to go on a hunger strike.

Anyway, my Kenyan sand boa was extremely docile and a great eater but I don't think her saliva was toxic. Maybe not the Kenyans?

There are some pretty neat pictures out there of their rear fangs. They are there. I've heard different things about their saliva being toxic vs that they are mildly vemomous, that is not that affective against humans.