Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I keep reading they don't bite, or their venom isn't dangerous, and all this other crap. If you are allergic an ant, bee, or vine snake can kill you. Yes you should still be very carefull with this snake. If your willing to take a chance loseing you life go for it. Chances are still 50% that your allergic, and you never know until you've been bitten! I have a trio and probably treat them just like everyone else "a non venomous snake" Just thought people should know.
John

This is totally uncalled for. Let's get some things straight.

IN GENERAL, hognoses DO NOT bite out of defense, they a multitude of unique adaptations to avoid predators. Most snakes that do no more than flee to avoid predators will be more likely to bite. This is not so with hognoses.

I think every regular on this forum will agree with me that we have NEVER heard of anyone dying from an accidental hognose bite.
The following quote is therefore, unjustified and unsupported, "If your willing to take a chance loseing you life go for it."

"Chances are still 50% that your allergic" Where did this come from? The Spastic Snake Handler's Almanac? 50%? Half the people on this planet should be dead from bee stings then. I spent 5 min looking at the CDC website and I found the following about insect bites/stings...
"Current evidence suggests that fewer than 0.4 percent of the population will have a more severe systemic reaction, with a very much smaller percentage of that group in danger of a true life-threatening reaction." 50%??

"I have a trio and probably treat them just like everyone else a non venomous snake"

Have you ever been bitten, envenomated, and hospitalized due to an allergic reaction that was not a result your own carelessness? Have you ever known ANYBODY personally to have this occur to them? If not then keep your hysteria to yourself.
Click here for the link...

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*Humans aren't the only species on earth... we just act like it.

".the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without
spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

I have caught a TON of these snakes. Now with most snakes, you get the biters and the ones that are docile. Out of a certain species, I would say probably about 75 percent of the specimens I catch from that species are biters. The other 25% are fairly calm. Hognose are the exception. I have caught TONS (and I mean literally tons...sometimes 4 a day) of hogs. I think, if they did bite, I would have encountered one. I have had every stunt pulled, fake strikes, death feigning, blood from the mouth, musking, hissing, puffing up. But I have NEVER, EVER seen one bite defensively. They are the one snake that just doesn't bite. I, also, do not know anyone that has been bitten in a defense. Accidents happen when people smell like prey items, but never in defense. So you ask who is the say they aren't dangerous...I am. True, anaphylaxis is a concern, but I have kept hognose for years and have never even had a feeding bite. Even if you were then bitten, nothing would happen unless you allowed the snake to continue to chew into you and inject "venom" so to speak. Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Who are you who can say it's ok to live through me? Alice In Chains

i agree with you snakeman..ive never been bitten by any of my hogs in defense..i have been bitten trying to feed them and so has my friend..nothing happend to us..not even swelling..i agree there is a chance of being allergic but it definetly isnt 50%..hogs are considered non-venomous not HOT...i hope everyone realizes that hogs are not very agressive snakes and are in my eyes, harmless if you know what you are doing

scoop

Hognoses being able to kill people is a theoretical construct. We just know it COULD maybe happen based on people's reactions to similar venoms from other animals. But the odds are so vanishingly low that despite the United States being filled to the brim with hognoses, and the fact that many enthusiastic people keep them as pets and use them to scare their dogs, NO ONE has had anything close to a life threatening reaction. The odds are greater of getting killed by a vending machine or a tiger. The only thing you're accomplishing is getting some state to classify them along with mambas and puff adders. In fact, making up facts like that, you sound a lot like a certain Chicago politician. Way to be.

Yes they could kill you. It's not a matter of what the chances are but they could. And yes they do bite. Anything with a mouth "can" bite. So to say they don't bite is rediculas. Anyways everyone can have their own opionion,
JOhn

And most are outright fabrications. If you had actually studied hognose venom and delivery systems I'd listen, but as far as I can tell you're just trolling. But go ahead and handle your hog with midwest gloves and tongs if it makes you feel better. I'm personally going to keep using mine to scare my dog.