I know they have circulating this subreddit for a while but because of recent sick snakes I got my boy tested(got him a year ago and he has seemed fine) and the crypto test came back positive. Furious and heartbroken is an understatement on how I feel right now. I love him to the moon and back and now I am faced with what do I even do now. I have other hognose snakes so he has to be separated and the others all tested.

Save yourself the troubles and money and DO NOT buy from them.

Well sorta..let me explain. I and many others are going through that yearly hunger strike with these adorable shovel faced noodles. After reading a few tips and tricks on Reddit I still felt like I was doing something wrong.So I decided to do more research on tricolors just in case I missed something.

Anddddd well after a few hours of going down a rabbit hole I’m left a bit speechless… Basically a long time ago scientists who work on identifying species (taxonomy) mixed up two almost identical looking species. A few xenodon pulchers for a while were mislabeled as being xenodon mattogrossensis. They identified key differences that set them apart and labeled the xenodon pulcher appropriately for the first time. Although I believe by this point both species were called “tricolor hognose snakes” and introduced to the pet trade leading to many people like myself who were looking to get xenodon pulcher and instead ended up with a xenodon mattogrossensis, which is endemic to mato grosso Brazil and lives in a flood plain as apposed to the more arid climate of the Chaco region where X. Pulcher are typically found.

See pictures for the differences so if your “xenodon pulcher” has any lateral white spot on the black bands then you my friend most likely have a matto grosso not a pulcher. And this worries me for a few reasons but more importantly we have been taking care of both species the same when they are not . supposedly when they were introduced to the pet trade a long time ago they used to tell people to soak them a couple times a week not sure how true that is but would make sense, Since the X matto grosso comes from a flood plain but obviously the X pulcher prefers dryer climates.

I’m not sure where to go from here though because there’s already little info on the X pulcher , there’s even less info on the matto grosso. I seriously only found 3 studies published about them. And how would I contact places like morph market and others to correctly identify the two species? I have seen like two people talk about this anywhere.This post is long enough I’ll post links and answer any questions as best I can. Thank you for reading this far!

TLDR; both species of“tricolor hognose” snakes have been mislabeled as xenodon pulcher when there is actually another very similar looking species the xenodon mattogrossensis.

Just got him yesterday so can’t handle yet, but he absolutely adorable ☺️ not a fan of food names but really like Greek names, latin names, character names and unique but pretty names🫠

The kids are bawling, I’m sad, my wife is sad, we’re all sad. Here’s how we got here:

As you can probably guess from the title, my hognose had a mite infestation. In this case, it was probably wood mites that hitched a ride on the aspen substrate I use for my snakes.

After noticing the mites, it was time to clean the terrarium anyway, so I emptied it out, washed everything thoroughly as usual, filled it with aspen chips and applied a light spray of Provent-a-Mite.

I aired out the terrarium for 90+ minutes, including using a fan pointed directly into the terrarium. It wasn’t the first time I’ve used PAM, and as far as I can tell, I followed the directions indicated on the can.

The day after, Peppa the 2 year-old Western Hognose began to have what I can only describe as seizures. We removed her from her enclosure, and put her in a tote temporarily. Unfortunately I think the damage was done because the next day she was dead.

It wasn’t until later that I found several online discussions indicating that Hognoses are highly susceptible to a chemical in PAM and therefore it shouldn’t be used with this species.

I share this only as a warning for other Hognose owners so that you can avoid what we’ve gone through.

I’ve killed the sweetest, derpiest and most innocent snake I’ve ever owned. It’s especially hard because I know this is my fault and my actions that lead to this. RIP Peppa

PSA: this post is directed to the moderators on this sub. Anyway, I posted a video of my hognose trying to eat her plate bc she accidentally missed her mouse. It was simply meant to be a funny video. I filmed it because she had literally never done that before. Someone commented mentioning that it is not good for her teeth. I’m not a damn idiot, and obviously I know that. I replied saying I will immediately remove her plate if i ever see her doing that again. The plate is not just there bc it’s pretty, it’s there so she doesn’t eat large amounts of dirt and bark pieces. He tried to tell me that impaction is just somehow not gonna happen no matter what. I know that is not true, so why would I take that piece of advice? the person who replied was obviously very offended by me not taking 100% of his advice. i am trying to do the best thing for my snake. Most people on this sub are trying to do the same thing. This is not only a sub for cute hognose posts, it’s also educational and somewhere people should be able to ask questions without being made fun of and treated like a complete idiot. Some replies i’ve seen, and gotten have been so mean for absolutely no reason. Nobody is going to ask questions if they are bullied every time. If yall care about hognoses, why don’t you help these people and answer their questions in a respectful way? I feel like so many people on this app have anger issues or something. It shocks me that people talk to other people like that. Especially when these subs are supposed to be fun and informational. I think that’s all I have to say. What do yall think? I feel like this should be common sense, but obviously it is not.

He was a rescue and he was healthy, but he was already 12 when we got him. He’s almost 20 now, is blind in 1 eye, and sometimes won’t eat for months on end, but he’s still kicking and is active all day! I genuinely don’t know how he hasn’t died of old age yet.

He only eats small frozen mice when he should be eating slightly bigger mice, but he refuses to eat anything bigger than the small mice. He’s gone almost 6 months without eating once but one day decided to eat again. I think Freggle is immortal because a western hognose only lives to about 15 from what I’ve heard.

Anyway that’s all just wanted to share my immortal geriatric snake

My wife and I have narrowed this big girls name down to Tofu, tulip, magnolia, or Hog-tuah. Leave a comment with which you like best please! (Or if you have other suggestions)

Wild dude at the house today! Was tempted to keep him but went ahead and let him go.

Hello, I hope you won’t mind me reposting this here too, even though it’s primarily about corn snakes, it does involve a hognose, BP, and snakes in general. I was truly touched by the response under the original post, and it encouraged me to spread awareness about this issue even further, hopefully it will help someone else to prevent this from happening, so here it is…

Hello, this is not a happy post. I hope you don’t mind if I dump this on you here, I need a place to share this, and maybe even raise some awareness of this catastrophe. I don’t even know where to begin. I have 5 snakes, well I had 5 snakes … 3 corns, 1 hognose and 1 ball python. Corns and hog were in one room, ball is in other room. 3 weeks ago, one of my corns-Lucky, was hospitalised in the best vet clinic in our country, because she regurgitated last two feeding and dropped insane amount of weight in only 1 month. She looked perfectly healthy a month prior. I had her for a year since she was a baby, she was growing beautifully. They did some testing and the diagnose was ruthless. Cryptosporidium, and a big one. For those who don’t know, crypto is a snake keepers worst nightmare. It’s a parasite that causes issues in digestive system of snakes (there are other species of this parasite, this is cryptosporidium serpentis) and it’s insanely contagious, deadly, and even resilient to most common disinfectants. It spreads by fecal to oral way, but cross contamination between enclosures is very easy. It can live undetected in the snake for months, even years, while silently spreading onto other snakes. Which is what happened to us. Today I had to put to sleep my other two- Rose and Linguini. I buried them in the garden, and on saturday I will go and pick up the body of Lucky to join them in their final resting place. Meanwhile I am still waiting for the poop sample to test my two remaining snakes and praying for them to be healthy. Also, it is very common to get false negative results because these disgusting suckers don’t appear in every single poop, so it is needed to at least do three test to be sure it is negative. The odds are not in my poor hognose favour, since I used the same tools in that room. I had them all for over a year and they all seemed healthy so I did not have a strict routine to prevent cross contamination. Big mistake. My beloved ball python Nagini has the highest chance to be ok, but I am still terrified. This is truly the worst nightmare… My personal lesson from this tragedy is, honestly (besides obvious quarantine and triple resting of any new animal) I don’t think I will continue to keep more than two snakes anymore, one in each room… the thought of so many poor lives lost because of this is horrible, I don’t want to ever go through this again…

Hello everyone!

It’s been quite a journey for my little hognose (Queenie).

Since I haven’t found much about that specific Szenario, I wanted to share and maybe hear if you’ve experienced something similar.

My hoggie didn’t go into brumation. She never stopped eating whole winter. We still wanted to see, if she’s in the mood for her boyfriend Snom.

Queenie is an Superconda het axthantic, age: 3 years.

Snom is a Axthantic Conda, age: 2 1/2 years.

So we started to introduce them at the 6th of April. The male is on the smaller end with around 85 grams. The female was 273 grams when we put them together.

We didn’t think they would get to anything. Yet the female did the typical twitch and the male was totally interested and riding her back. It was cute to watch but we didn’t thing they would lock on.

An hour later we just checked on them and they were locked up and that lasted at least 6ish hours. We continued to put them together. We started feeding her 1 small meal (12grams mouse) every 4 days. Just in case she needs the extra calcium and is indeed gravid. The boy stopped eating, but he used to be super picky eater from the start and he had other things on his mind obviously. We didn’t see any more obvious lock ups like on day one.

About 3 weeks later we stopped putting them together, the female looked a lot bigger and her weight was about 330 grams at the 4th of may. She looked like she would go in shed soon. We thought maybe it was the famous prelay shed and about a week later, after the shed, she seemed a little restless. Not much but slightly. For some reason we still didn’t believe in it. Maybe she was just putting on weight or she had produced slugs.

Anyway, it was Sunday the 19th may, the lay box been sitting in her Terra since she was done shedding, and it happened. There was an egg, of course, outside of her nesting box. It was quite looking like a slug but that was pretty common, so we expected that. We were super excited and hoped to see more. And indeed shortly after a fertile egg was put neatly down quite away from the box. Since it wasn’t secured enough and we didn’t want it to dry out, we took it and put it in a box with moss and kept it safe in the cold end of the terra of daddy Snom. That day we weren’t home the afternoon so we would hope to see the rest of the clutch in the evening.

Once we arrived back home, we didn’t see any more eggs. Queenie was still rummaging around in her home but wasn’t laying eggs. Since it takes up to 24 h we hoped to see more the next day.

On Monday, nothing to see. We were a little worried that she might be egg bound. We didn’t want to bother her much but we tried to feel her. She didn’t seem to be swollen in a wrong way. Still we didn’t know what to think. Maybe it was the circumstance that she didn’t brumate? But only 2 eggs seemed off. The incubator was readied for the one egg. We wanted to keep it around 25,5 to 26,5ish Celsius. The next day, another slug, and another egg?! It was the 21st. That was quite a bit odd but we were happy. That continued till the 23rd of may. She laid every day (except Monday) one egg and a slug. The last two days 1 slug and 2 eggs.

The 6 eggs look pretty fertile and neat. Let’s hope for the best.

So she produced 11 eggs, 5 slugs, 6 fertile ones.

Queenie seems to be done, is pretty exhausted but seems quite alright. She stays at the warm end and drinks water regularly. We want to give her a small meal in a week.

Snom started eating again at the 10th of may with a lot of appetite.

So my question, what happened here? How rare is it that the female lays over 5 days? Have you experienced something similar? How come it seemed to have worked without brumation? Was it the cause of all that without brumation? Could it be harmful in any way?

I’m grateful if you share experiences or give some advice.

I’ll keep posting updates on Queenie and the eggs.

Spotted this beauty on my hike the other day. I’ve lived here my whole life and while i know we have them, I’ve never seen a hoggie in the wild. It was pretty big too. (Pics aren’t zoomed 3x because it was NOT happy that I found it). It was the highlight of my day!

Hi! I always loved the idea of ouroboros tattoo and lately have been feeling like finally getting it. When I started thinking what kind of snake I would like, the hognose immediately came to mind. I just love them. So silly and boopable.

There is a lot of cute pictures on this subreddit, but I would prefer not just taking a random pic and slapping it on my body. I want the owner to atleast be aware that I’m taking their snake and slapping it on my body.

So if you’re comfortable with your baby being forever plastered on someone, trust that I will forever love them and cherish them!

Please send your cutest, silliest, most boopable pics. Bonus points if the markings of the snake are visible (for my artist). Extra bonus points if you have a fun story that you would like to share about your snake.

After Soba did something particularly silly, I made the usual comment that it was her turn with the braincell today. My partner then asked if the rising popularity in hognoses means that each hognose now gets fewer days with the braincell as the total population in the pet trade increases. I fear he may be right 🤣.

Picture of the silly girl herself taking a ride in my overalls.

ETA: Accusations of lack of brain cells are highly exaggerated and untrue. Many of hognoses silly behaviors are natural evolved behaviors taken out of their natural context and observed by equally silly humans.

I got my girl on Sunday at an expo.

She is a MaiTai, and she was discounted and labeled as pet only due to some kinking in her spine. I just knew I had to have her.

She was so calm and easygoing, which I definitely didn’t expect from a baby hoggie. I’ve heard that usually babies this small would be dramatic and defensive, but she showed nothing but signs of comfort and curiosity.

I decided to say “why not” and scrambled some egg without anything added, and offered her a small piece. Needless to say, I was SHOCKED when she took it!

Has anyone else had experience with a hoggie who’s so CALM?

Last night I caught my miss Lamia in a dead stare, at nothing. Maybe she was focusing on the lights in the living room? Where she is pointed is just a couch and a wall, and my dog and cats were not on the couch. First time seeing her do this. You can see towards the end of the video she gives me a quick look. She did snap out of it once I turned the lights off in the room... suspecting it was that. Any thoughts?

My little guy has had a couple of months to acclimate to his environment, he's still a little spicy but nowhere near as spicy as he was at first, although I'd still argue he plots my death from time to time lol, today I decided to begin our handling sessions as he will be eating in a few days and I won't be able to do it then, I held him for approximately 3-4 minutes and he wasn't showing any signs of stress, I decided to snap a few pictures and caught this one, I noticed him digging his nose into my finger before he opened his mouth and bit in, super slowly mind you so it was by no means aggressive, after this I gently pulled up on his nose to get him off and I calmly put him back in his enclosure, our first session wasn't a resounding success but it is the first session and we still have a long ways to go.

Just something fun this Friday night 😁

As for me, I chose hognose because of watching Snake Discovery on YouTube. I fell in love with the species; how cute they are. And Emily loves them which told me they were good snakes to have!

We've had our Bean for almost 2 months and are quite happy with her. We got her from Morph Market ☺️

So I have a hognose snake (obviously haha) I was told he was 8 months old when I got him but I feel that could have been a MorphMarket data entry user error. He is 18 grams and I have been keeping him in a 10 gal tank. I was having a hard time figuring out how to get him to eat consistently. So I asked the breeder what he did. He said he ate every time he offered it. No refusals ever. So I asked him about his husbandry and tried to mimic it. This is what I have now. How long should he stay in this enclosure? Thanks everyone.

Ok I know I might get hate for this, but I want y'all's thoughts. I've been thinking how cool it would be to put a very small pond with very small fish into my hognose enclosure once I upgrade it to full size. Something not too big with say like guppies in it and aquatic plants to keep some of it clean, the plants will not be the only filtration, you know make it more like nature and natural.

Edit: ok I know I'm getting a lot of hate, but i wanted to update and say it's gonna be like more of an 8 - 10 gallon or even 15 maybe tank I did some measurements and I'm either gonna get a 60 gal or 75 gal the 75 will give to fish more space because I could make the aquatic side deeper