Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I am a newbi in the wonderfull world of Hognose. I have kept a wide variety of snakes in the past, everything from naja to Atheris with alot of Pituophis in the middle but never any Hognose ; ;

I have always been very found on the easterns but have always neglected searching further for them due to the notorious feeding problems some specimens seem to have. There also dosent seem to be much of a CB market for them, atleast comapred to westerns though I admit I havent look as hard as I could have.

My question are who would be the most reputable source for CB Easterns if any suh person exsist and how hard are they to switch onto rodents if indeed the rumors are true.

Thanks a ton for any help you can give.

All the best

I see CB Eastern hatchlings offered with some regularity on the KS classifieds. Jim McDonald mentioned in a previous thread that perhaps some breeders are selling babies before they are reliably feeding on mice, leaving the new owner who is less prepared/experienced to deal with trying to establish that. I don't know how you tell who is reputable and who is not other than searching the Board of Inquiry for either good or bad transactions or going by a personal reference from someone you trust. I have also found, reading Board of Inquiry, that people's experiences with a particular breeder/seller can vary wildly, especially in regards to different species or even completely different types of reptiles purchased. Good luck. Maybe, unless you are particularly set on an Eastern, you should instead shop for a well-established-feeding hatchling of any of the hoggy variations- letting that dictate your choice. (You'll probably end up getting several species, anyway, since they are all so cool...)

Nanci
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*****
0.0.1 Classic Corn, 0.0.1 Cali King, 0.1 Nelson's Milk
1.0 Tricolor Hog, 0.0.1 Eastern Hog, 1.0 Florida King
1.0 Eastern Box Turtle, 1.0 Florida Box Turtle
0.0.2 Desert Torts, 2.0 Feral Pigeons

I see western offered alot and everyone I have talked to has said they were easy, delightfull captives. However, when compareing color and pattern, to me the eastern are hard to beat. I'm very partial to them.

As for reputable breeders, I ment just that. Im not looking for WC animals that many reptile brokers like to sell. I guess Im looking to see if any forums members may have some idea as to a good source, even private breeders who may have had sucsess.

I have also thought about southerns but know little to nothing about them.

Im not too concerned about getting babies to switch. I have alot of experince with neonate arboreal vipers/pitvipers and belive you me, they are as hard as any snake to switch over to rodents. However, some species just wont make the switch like coral snakes, king cobras (though a good number of folks have managed)and some other more exotic species. I guess Im just wondering if its near imposible or if i would have a good chance.

I believe the Southern, Mexican and Western are all similar. The Eastern is the only one in its genus. Then there is the Tri-color, which is my personal favorite. I dearly love my WC rescue Eastern, but I was not successful at getting her to switch, so we are at a standoff for the moment. Jenea (Floridahogs) is successful at getting Easterns to switch. Another South American tri-color, which is closer in appearance to the Western group, but very brightly colored with red, too, is the dorbignyi, which is now being CB in limited quantities, but is still more expensive than the high-end Western color morphs. But if money were no object, I'd be getting one of those as my next snake over anything else. You should look into the Lystrophus tri-colors- they are very interesting snakes and tend to be voracious feeders. But there are CB baby Easterns out there, too.

Nanci
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*****
0.0.1 Classic Corn, 0.0.1 Cali King, 0.1 Nelson's Milk
1.0 Tricolor Hog, 0.0.1 Eastern Hog, 1.0 Florida King
1.0 Eastern Box Turtle, 1.0 Florida Box Turtle
0.0.2 Desert Torts, 2.0 Feral Pigeons

>>I see CB Eastern hatchlings offered with some regularity on the KS classifieds. Jim McDonald mentioned in a previous thread that perhaps some breeders are selling babies before they are reliably feeding on mice, leaving the new owner who is less prepared/experienced to deal with trying to establish that.

Always assume any baby eastern hog is gonna be hard to start on pinkies when it comes to feeding. It does happen that a snake that is feeding willingly and reliably on pinks for a breeder may suddenly stop with a new owner.. different surroundings, stress, different smell to the food, etc. can potentially throw off a snake. Likewise the opposite can happen sometimes and can trigger a good feeding response. I had one that I bought and was told upfront that she was very unreliable at taking pinks and at that would only take scented... within a short time she was eating pinks like a chow hound and I never scented a single one of them. I have another who I was told was regularly eating frog scented pinks, but for me will only eat tuna scented. He will NOT touch a pink until it has been dipped in tuna water..once dipped he goes into a literal feeding frenzy. His sibling that i also bought back then, she won't eat at all for me regardless of the scenting method used. Have had to resort to force feeding.
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PHWyvern

I would ask the breeder how old his adults are and how many years they have been rodent feeders. My experience with all my easterns and their clutches has been that the parents died at 2.5 to 3 years old on mice only diet. After doing a necropsy it was found that the intestinal walls were lined with undigested hair that basically starved them to death even though they continued to eat till the day they died. Most of the babies switched to scented mice with out to much trouble, 2 or 3 out of each clutch took unscented right away but after two to three feedings more than half started to get very weak and I lost most of them. The ones that I kept on f/t spade foot toads twice a week and a scented rat pink once a month are doing very well. And yes the vet checked everyone out, no parasites. Just me thinking out loud but is it possible that easterns from different areas of the country are better suited for all rodent diet. With all the clutches produced each year you would think there would be a lot more available each year. Just my two cents.
Tom.

I highly reccomedn Anthony from GradeAReptiles. He breeds his own stuff and I have had bought several from him. He should have some ready layer in spring. Here is a pic of one I got from him eating scented pinks. That same snake is now on unscented large fuzzies/sm hoppers and not even a year old now.
Nick

Anthony from Grade A has *hands down* the best husbandry practices and most attention to each individual animal that I have seen in my many years in the hobby. The animals I got from him are the prize of my collection. If you want good hogs, he's it.

http://www.gradeareptiles.com/
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."