Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
Very new to hognoses and would really like to get into them. Would really like to work with Easterns, but as far as I can tell, it's illegal to have one in my state (PA...still waiting to hear back from the Fish and Boat people about that one). So I'm looking at Southerns. From what I've gathered on the web, it's often stated that they're harder to keep then other hognoses. Can't find any good specifics on exact what they mean by this. I already keep and breed several subspecies of common garter (Thamnophis sirtalis) and Variable Kings (Lamporpeltis mexicana thayeri), so I've done well with snakes I've had, but want to make sure that I'm not jumping into something really difficult here, before I shell out the cash for a nice pair of Southerns. Thank you for any and all help.

Roy

I bought a pr. of southerns last Dec. that were started on squirrel treefrogs.Witih a week they were eating toad scented piny mice.The female is now eating unscented rat pinkies and the male eats scented large mouse pinkies.The only difficulty I have with them is,fighting the temptation to feed them everyday!l.o.l.I would buy c.b.if possible though.(just my opinion) Take care and good luck! Jeff

My nearly two-year-old simus eat unscented rat pups like popcorn! Jeff is right-they'd probably eat themselves into obesity if allowed....

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Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Very nice looking snakes. Question Brad, do you keep you southerns together or were they just together for the pic? I know I keep some of my garters in same sex groupings.
Also, since feeding doesn't seem to be an issue, is there anything else that makes these guys particularily difficult to care for? How hard are they to breed?

Thanx...Roy

Tey were just together for the pic-I keep all my snakes seperately.

The biggest difficulty with southerns is the initial process of getting them to take rodents. After that they are a breeze!
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Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....