Common Name(s): Western Hognose Snake
Latin Name: Heterodon nasicus nasicus
Ease of Care: Moderate (WARNING: These snakes are rear-fanged with specialized teeth and saliva at the back of the mouth)
Native To: Southern Canada, Midwest and Southern United States, Northern Mexico
Adult Size: 16-36 inches (Males being ~16” and Females reaching 36”)
Life Span: 15-20 years
Clutch Size: 5-30 eggs
Appearance: This little species is one of our favorites, and who couldn’t love these little guys with their beautiful patterns and cute, upturned nose! Hognose snakes are becoming more and more available in different morph varieties, but in the wild they have a tan background color with dark brown blotches along the back. The underbelly is a solid dark brown/black, and these little snakes have two scales at the base of the cloaca rather than one solid scale. The most distinctive characteristic with these little snakes, as the name implies, is their up-turned noses that have evolved in order to allow them to “shovel” the earth away as they dig burrows. As more breeders work with these little snakes, we should see more pattern varieties such as the anaconda and super anaconda morphs, as well as different colors emerging. The appearance of these little guys can only get better and better in the near future!
Temperament: They may be small, but they’ve got little-big-man syndrome in every sense of the description! Western hognose snakes are a diurnal species, meaning that they are active during the daytime, and these little guys have always been held in a behavioral esteem by the herpetoculture world because of their big attitudes and different defensive measures. They like to rear up and “hood” their necks to appear bigger. They will hiss and “false-strike” as a first defense and it really is a funny show to watch them put on. If all else fails, however, they will roll over and play dead, sticking their tongue out, opening their mouth, and emitting a foul smelling musk from their cloaca to add the finishing touches. This behavior is rarely seen in captivity, but has been experienced and is much more common with wild specimen. All in all, this is a very tame little snake with a big attitude. We handle ours quite frequently and have never been bitten by a snake displaying these behaviors, and would say they are a mildly tempered snake with a big attitude. Just beware; they are not for the faint hearted or jumpy, as they will put on a display for the first few moments of being held.
In The Wild: Western Hognose snakes are a fossorial snake in the wild, tending to stay near sandy areas that are easier to burrow in and near water. They can be found in shortgrass lands, prairie lands, rocky areas, semi-arid regions, and pretty much anywhere they can burrow or hide from predators. Their main food source is toads and other amphibians, which is why, it is believed, they have developed their rear-fangs. These specialized teeth are used to “pop” toads that have puffed themselves up as a defense mechanism. They are also known to eat lizards and small mammals, but their main food staple are amphibians, primarily toads. Finding one of these snakes in the wild is always considered a true pleasure since they are a fossorial species and have such a large array of defensive displays mentioned earlier in the care sheet.
Caging: Since the species is dimorphic, cage sizing tends to differ between the males and females. Males can be kept in a 10-gallon tank and females can be kept in a 20-gallon long tank as a minimum sized enclosure. Bedding should be something that the snake is able to dig in and we tend to suggest aspen, coconut husk, crushed walnut, bark, or any other loose and non-toxic mixes. The tank floor should be kept dry in order to make sure the snakes do not develop any skin diseases, and fresh water should always be readily available for the snakes as they will drink from a dish and soak from time to time.
Lighting: No special lighting systems are required, although it has been debated, as with all snakes, that a source of UVB can be an improvement in their dietary consumption of Vitamin D. Lights can also be used, as with all colubrids, to help instigate breeding by shortening and lengthening the daylight hours to correspond with the seasonal changes. If lighting is used, it is pertinent to make sure the bulb does not get hot, or that the snake is safely guarded from touching the hot bulb.
Temperature & Humidity: Hognoses should be kept at approximately the same conditions as most North American colubrids with the hot side of the tank reaching somewhere in the mid 80’s, and the cool side being around the mid-70’s. This allows for the snake to maintain a well-regulated body temperature due to the gradient across the length of the cage. Humidity levels should be kept fairly dry, and most normal household humidity levels will work just fine for these snakes. As with all snakes, raise the humidity levels when you see the snake go into the shedding cycle in order to make sure a full, healthy shed occurs naturally.
Feeding: Feeding Hognose Snakes can be one of the trickier tasks when dealing with this species in captivity. Although breeders tend to be getting better and better at enticing neonates to feed on frozen-thawed mice, the natural instincts of the species are to want to feed on toads and lizards. This can make feeding difficult, as those food sources are not readily available in most markets. But, after the snakes are started on rodents, they eat just fine and can be fed in much the same pattern as Corn Snakes. Food items should never exceed 125% of the snake’s width, with babies starting on pinky mice and adults eating adult mice. Getting problem feeders to eat can be solved in many ways with many different recipes, but this species seems to respond the best to scenting the mice with a toad or frog. The best way to do this is to catch a wild toad and humanly euthanize it and freeze it for multiple uses. De-thaw the toad with the food item and actually take a piece of the toad’s flesh and place it on the head-end of the food item. Then, gently tease the snake with the item and continue to try until the snake responds. If tease feeding doesn’t work, some snakes will actually respond better to being left in the dark with the food item for an extended period of time, so this can be tried as well. After you get the snake to eat a few mice this way, attempt to not use the scenting and see how it works! Good luck and feel free to contact Ruddock Reptiles if you experience problem eaters that you continue to have troubles with! There is always more than one solution and we’ll help you find it!
Sexing: Sexing adults is extremely easy as this species is dimorphic. Males will normally max out at about 16 inches in length, and females can grow to be close to 36 inches in length with most maxing out in the mid-20s. As for babies, popping or probing the snakes carefully can reveal the sex. Probing is the more reliable method, but should only be done by a trained professional in order to ensure the snake’s safety.
Breeding: Breeding Western Hognose snakes is a very straightforward process and very rewarding endeavor for any Hoggie owner. Hognose snakes normally reach sexual maturity by their 3rd year, but the minimum breedable size is normally recognized as 16 inches for the females. When the snakes are at sexual maturity, it is safe to breed the females by putting them through a full breeding season. The most important parts of the breeding process include brumation which is the period during the fall and winter months that a artificial winter is created for the snakes by lowering the temperature and shortening the daylight cycles to put the snakes in to a brumating state much like hibernation. The snakes should not be fed during this period and should be eased into brumation by dropping the daytime and nighttime temperatures slowly over the course of about a month in order to insure that the snakes don’t have undigested food that could rot in their stomachs. Brumation should last for about 2 months before the snakes are slowly brought out of brumation by raising the temperature and lengthening the daylight period over the course of two weeks. The snakes should then be fed a few food items before they go into their first post-brumation shed. After the shed, the males should be introduced to the females’ cages for mating over the course of a few weeks. This can be a very exciting time and there are few things more interesting to a snake owner than watching the courting rituals of these beautiful animals and seeing them lock up to produce the next generation. After pairings have occurred over about 2 weeks, the males should be removed and continue to feed the animals weekly as normal. Some snakes will refuse to eat during this time and this is not uncommon, so don’t stress too much about it if your snakes don’t eat during the breeding season. If a female has been fertilized she will go into a pre-lay shed approximately 2 weeks after copulation and you should be able to see the ovum’s developing towards the rear half of her body. When she goes into this pre-lay shed, we normally like to put a plastic shoebox full of damp sphagnum moss in her cage with a hole cut in the front of it to allow her to enter and leave the box. She should lay approximately 5-30 eggs, depending on her size, in here and it is good to check her cage every 1-2 days to make sure you don’t miss the eggs. After the eggs are discovered, it is best to remove the eggs gently, making sure you don’t roll them or flip them because the snake inside can drown based on the orientation of the egg. We like to place a pencil mark on the top of the eggs to let us know which side is up. After the eggs are removed safely, they can be carefully separated and placed in a lidded container filled approximately 2/3 of the way with Hatchrite, Vermiculite, or Sphagnum moss medium that is damp enough to keep the eggs hydrated, but not so damp that mold will grow on the outside of the eggs. At this point, some people use an incubator to keep the eggs at the proper temperature, but our favorite and most reliable way is to find a dark, warm corner of a closet and place the eggs here. The temperatures need to remain in the upper 70s or lower 80s for proper egg development. The eggs should hatch in approximately 6-8 weeks depending on the incubation temperatures, bringing the next beautiful generation of Hoggies into the world!
Care of Young: Caring for the new Hognose babies can be one of the most difficult tasks. They are normally about the width of a pencil and about 3.5 inches long at birth. These little guys can be kept at the same conditions as their parents, and we normally like to keep ours in rack systems that have tubs about the size of a pencil box. They will shed within about 3-5 days after they hatch, and can be fed shortly after. Babies should be fed every 3-5 days, and we like to try and feed them non-scented pinkies initially and we separate out the babies that feed from those that don’t to try and eliminate as much pre-scenting as possible. Using our above described scenting methods; we do our best to get all snakes eating pinkies in the first few weeks without scent. This can be a long and frustrating task, but don’t lose hope because sooner or later they’ll get hungry and if you’re persistent you’ll find success! For this very reason, however, we don’t suggest breeding these snakes unless you know what you’re getting yourself into and, as always, never breed snakes unless you have the necessary means to feed 30 hungry mouths and a plan to keep or unload the snakes as needed.
We hope that we’ve helped you get a good initial grasp on what it means to care for these awesome little animals! We have fallen in love with this species, and although they may not be for everybody, these little snakes are awesome and we are more than happy to help you make the decision on what snake is best for you. If you have any further questions, comments, or caught something in here you’d like explained or you don’t agree with, please feel free to contact us at our Contact Page. Thanks and Enjoy!