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Have bred hognose for a few yrs now usually have solid black bellies with the odd ones showing yellow/orange dots. This time I've done a mother x son breeding and got these bellies.

New to me, I'm told they'll colour up with age by European breeders. I like to keep for my own curiosity but do wonder when you know the difference between something that's just odd and interesting to you personally and something new?

Top view

Bellies



Dad now

Dad as hatchling

Those look like standerd nothing out of the ordinary bellys to me.
If you are hatching out baby's with all black bellys I'm sure others besides myself would like to see them. Hognose bellys are one of my favorite features of the species and I've seen very few with all black.

I've seen very few with all black.

Do you mean like this Joe?

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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles

or like this one?

I love that characteristic too!!
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Louie Chavez
Website-Cowtown Reptiles
Facebook-Cowtown Reptiles

How about like both of them.
Very awesome snake bellys guys.
Most of the baby's that I've seen with black like that are kennerlyi.
Would be really cool to see a toffee or hypo with a belly like that.

The majority of my red line animals have solid black bellies and all of the Arizona kennerlyi I have seen, both cb and in the field are checkered with orange or yellow. It must strictly be a locality thing.

To the op. Your snakes belly looks very typical and your friends are correct in thinking the color will come in later.
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Ultimate Hognose

Black belly Mexican hogs tend to be south Texas stock.
Black bellied westerns are common in New Mexico and rare throughout the rest of the range.

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Thank you,
Kevin Rhodes

www.spiderhognose.com

http://www.freewebs.com/spreptile/index.htm
http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc314/lifesciences/?action=view¤t=09-09hognose001.jpg

Kevin,

I would have to disagree. I have never had seen a wild caught South Texas Mexican with a solid black belly (although I am sure that they exist). I have seen a lot of West Texas Mexican Hogs and most have solid black bellies.

As far as westerns go, I have seen several wild caught animals from this area that have had solid black bellies, but I would not consider it more common than the checkered.

Bryan

That is of interest about the west Texas kennerlyi. All I have ever seen wc, marathon, Valentine, marfa, val Verde , all had somewhat checkered ventrals.
Of the south Texas hogs I have had ( 15wc), only 2 had Orange or pink checkers. The rest were black bellied . The locales I have had were starr county , artesia wells, cotulla, dimmitt county.
As far as the westerns in nm go , I worked there for 5 years collected for 5 more and bought locally as well. Of the 75 plus wc from mescalero sands near jal west to the Rio grande and north to socorro , east to Santa Rosa then southeast to the state line near hobbs, only a handful had checkered bellies . To the northeast along the state line the majority of westerns have checkered bellies. So my statement should have read " in my experience" and should also have included specifics I referenced here and not merely the generalization of the whole of two states .
Thanks for the input Bryan.

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Thank you,
Kevin Rhodes

www.spiderhognose.com

http://www.freewebs.com/spreptile/index.htm
http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc314/lifesciences/?action=view¤t=09-09hognose001.jpg

I used to have several Val Verde County hogs. I will say that none of them had solid black bellies. All had large amounts of orange. They are fairly hard to find. I wish that I had never gotten rid of the ones that I had.

Gerry salmon told me that those out there are outstanding.
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Thank you,
Kevin Rhodes

www.spiderhognose.com

http://www.freewebs.com/spreptile/index.htm
http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc314/lifesciences/?action=view¤t=09-09hognose001.jpg

Thanks for replies Fascinating, most of my hatchlings have solid black bellies with some gaining colour by adulthood. So much marking on new hatchlings is new to me, don't have an adult with as much tbh.

Some homebred holdbacks over the yrs.
5 yr old male

3 yr old female

2 yr old male

2 yr old female