Hi everyone. I'm no newbie to Kingsnake or herp keeping but I am somewhat new to keeping hogs. I teach biology and anatomy at a relatively small, rural school in Arkansas and sponsor the science club. It has been my desire for the past couple of years to have the science club become involved with a breeding project of some sort of herp. I already keep a number of herps in my classroom, including a pair of eastern indigos, but they're all my personal educational animals. I wanted us to get involved with something that the kids could really take charge of.
Well finally, this year with the new administration, that desire is becoming a reality. We've settled on western hognose snakes for the project and I'm pretty excited about it. Western hogs seem to be pretty well suited for this endeavor considering their size, ease of care, proclivity for relatively easy reproduction, and the number of mutations that exist. Of course I'm preaching to the choir.
I've been fortunate enough to acquire the initial animals locally from a friend of mine. My starter group consists of a 2010 male albino, a 2009 female probable het albino, and an adult normal female. The male is already over 50g so I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that things will pan out within this first school year and babies will be produced either within it or shortly thereafter. All of them will be housed in a 4-level 32qt rack from RBI Plastics, controlled by a VE-200 thermostat. We'll probably opt to keep them on paper to minimize the risk of impaction or oral abrasion from ingesting substrate material. The goal is to produce enough offspring to donate some to other educators and sell some to add funds back into the club's budget as well as to raise funds to acquire other mutations to expand the project.
I look forward to conversing with you guys. Wish us luck!
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Chance Duncan
Science Teacher, Herp Enthusiast, and Reptilian Conservation Proponent
