Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello fellow herpers! Trust me i tried to do my research before comming here, but maybe you guys can help me.

I want to get a pair of albino Western hognose snakes to breed and sell. Hognose snakes are indiginous to CO and therefore illegal to sell in the CO pet trade.
My question is if i was to have papers showing the snakes were bought out of state, and captive bred, captive born, would it be legal to own them then?

I have tried calling Colorado Division of Wildlife several times and nobody has a clue there, ive called several different offices without an answer. Its very irratating actually.

PLEASE HELP ME IF YOU CAN!!!
Thanks!

Ive talked to game and fish about this issue before and they have told me that the albinos in particular fall into the pet category so they are legal to keep, breed, and sell and hets are even ok as long as their is paperwork stating they are het.

I'm not saying I'm an expert but this is what Ive been told.

i have been dealing with colorado fish and wildlife for the last couple of months with a private issue. this is from the law man himself.
it is illegal to buy,sell,trade or barter in or out of co. in any way any indiginous. including nassicus. it is legal to own no more than 4 of each species but the species must be collected in co.
they say that this is the only loop hole to owning native species in co. you can not breed them no matter what.hets,or morphs are only recognized as species not morphs.paper work means nothing species is species.there problem is if some one buys a snake from out of state, say texas or what ever. if the snake gets out survives and has say,,, has worms or some sort of transmitable sickness or disease.
this is straight from the co. f&w lady,
the only reason any native species are alowed in you house in colorado is for the sake of the 10 year old kid who picks up a frog and puts it in his pocket on his way home from school.
if you would like a point in the right direction to who to talk to about this write me a private message and ill give you all the info you might need.
hope this helps.
joe

This is NOT to be considered legal advice, but is provided to help you make up your own mind regarding your situation. I would agree that nobody at the DOW seems to care much about herps. It's too bad, really.

Below is a link to the State of CO Division of Wildlife non-game regulations. You may have up to 12 wild-collected hognose snakes from the State of Colorado in your posession, so long as no more than 4 were collected in a given year after 1998.
Ch.10 - CO Non-game Regs

This is a link the the State's Exotic Animal Regulations:
Ch.11 - Exotics

The Chapter 11 regulations have an introduction, including a paragraph on the in-state posession of navive, wild-collected herps, that clearly contradicts the regulations outlined in Chapter 10.

Page 3, provision 7 seems to me to say that you can keep and breed as many non-Colorado hognose as you wish, provided you can show that they are not of Colorado origin.

-Cole
(Not a CO resident)