Reptile & Amphibian Forums

it is a eastern hognose and of course no matter how many times I flipped him right side up he would turn back over and play dead.

-----
Michelle
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

That has to be a cool and funny sight.

I don't keep hognose's but have a few friends that do and I always try to get them to do that and never have. I guess at some point it is bred out of them.

It is pretty funny, I could not make him go right side up for nothing and when he would finally shut his mouth as soon as he seen movment he would open it wide again and hang out his toungue. My neighbor had him laid over a stick and when he would come to just a little and look around as soon as you touched his tail he went limp and played dead again. I have western hognose and they won't do it. I have always wanted them to but like you said i guess it has been bred out of them.
-----
Michelle
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

I would more suspect it is a defense mechanism that is never triggered because the CB ones are used to handling from an early age. I may be wrong though. It would be interesting to hear from someone who breeds them wether the newly hatched ones display that behavior early on or not.

Sean.

For the record, western hognose snakes can and DO display like the easterns. I've had a western hognose for two years now and last fall I was cleaning her cage when, for no apparent reason, she did the full-blown "leave me alone - I'm dead" display, complete with a drop or two of blood oozing from her mouth. I watched her for quite a long while, and after about ten minutes she started moving her mouth and "drinking" the blood back into her mouth (waste not, want not) as she turned herself over and crawled back to her hide box. It was so cool to observe this beautifully complex behavior that is definitely instinctual, and evidently adaptive!

By the way, I handle her more frequently now and she has not freaked out or displayed since the one time last fall. But I still feel fortunate to have observed the whole display so up-close and personal . . .

Tom

Is that wild caught?

yep, he was caught played with and released.
-----
Michelle
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Awesome...I've never seen a wild hognose.