Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just curious how some of you got into hoggies? I myself got into them in the 70's when my parents where clearing a piece of property. I was only 7 at the time. They found this beautiful glossy black female eastern over 3 ft long. It was my first introduction to snakes and I fell in love. I kept her for a season, even took her to show in tell for second grade. To this day, I still remember the name of the one person in class that would not touch her! I have had easterns off and on ever since. Now I am sharing that passion with my own children.

Just curious what got the rest of you started?
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Jenea

2:3:1 Tricolor Hognose (plus babies)
4:2 Eastern Hognose
1:2 Western Hognose
0:2 Southern Hognose
0:0:3 Florida Redbelly Snakes
0:1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle
1:1 Red-eared Slider
1:2 Eastern Fence Lizards
2:0 Cats
1:1 Kids
1:0 Spouse

Never thought about keeping hogs til a friend of mine (jasonmc) said he had some for sale. I looked @ my snakes and thought, "Hey, a hog would add some diversity to my collection". So, a year and a few little adventures later Buster, my '05 male Western lives in our bedroom in a tank on a stand. Above him his neighbors are 2 Golden Geckos.

reako45

I have always been reptile/amphibian crazy. I grew up in Minnesota, and grew up catching as many of the MN natives as I could. Mostly this consisted of Garter Snakes, Red Bellies and Bullsnakes. Although the Eastern Hognose is found where I was looking, I never managed to come across one, though it has been my #2 most wanted to find in the wild snake for my entire life. (I found #1, the Coral Snake, several years after moving to Florida- catch and release!)

Last year, after having only pigeons and a tortoise for the last few years, I found a Corn Snake out in my yard. I'd never had any exposure to Corns, and was immediately taken with this one, and decided to keep her. Then, a few months ago, a friend bought "too many" snakes at the Daytona show and gave me the most adorable Cali King. In October, the same friend brought over a WC Eastern Hog!! I was thrilled to get this snake, but also understood that it could take some effort, probably a lot, to get her to eat mice. And yesterday, after six attempts with various scented mice, I finally found something that met her approval- a live fuzzy scented with toad.

Yay!! I love that little snake, and didn't want to have to release her. She is so gentle and funny and has so much personality.

And tomorrow, a Nelson's Milksnake will be arriving via UPS, a birthday present, and my first "store-bought" snake ever.

Nanci
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0.0.1 Normal Corn, 0.0.1 Cali King 0.1 Nelson's Milk
0.0.1 Eastern Hognose, 1.0 Eastern Box Turtle
0.0.2 Desert Torts, 2.0 Feral Pigeons

>>Just curious what got the rest of you started?

This happened way back in the 80's. I had recently started volunteering at a local nature center. I wasn't afraid of snakes, but just wasn't keen on them. an eastern hognose was the first 'big' snake I ever held. ...if you call 2 feet 'big' lol. And it wasn't like I had a choice lol...a little girl (sister to a coworker) was holding it and she was sitting in my lap.. next thing i know she's gone and I'm left holding the snake lol. I totally was like.. what do I do now? LOL. That hog was cool though.. he'd eat toads all summer and in the winter would eat boiled chicken strips without so much as batting an eye. Too bad a few years later someone stole him out of his cage (we didn't have a reason to lock cages back then unlike now a days). Since then I've wanted a hog of my own but you just couldn't really find them in the pet trade and they weren't too common in our area to find in the wild even back then...once people started getting CB's seriously going with good results on rodent eating, then I decided to try my luck. My eldest just turned 2 this summer and I picked up 3 more at the daytona show. I also have a wild caught baby at work I am working on converting.
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PHWyvern