Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Bought this guy yesterday. Was told he is a Madagascar Honey Hognose. I have searched the books, and the net, and can't
find anything about this snake. I'm sure he is one of the giant hognose, but I cant find anything this color. How rare is he? He is
4'to 5' long and pretty tame. Any info about this guy would be appreciated. Also if anyone has a female for sale I would love
to breed him. He is very pretty. Thanks, Billy

Very pretty animal! I believe that what you have is a malagasy blond hognose--leioheterodon modestus. If this animal is a fresh import, you may want to have a fecal run for parasites. My experience is with malagasy speckled hognoses, and they are among my favorite captives. Very alert, curious, and easygoing, as well as good f/t pink rat feeders. Info can be found on hognose.com. Best of luck with this animal--he sure is beautiful!
Regards,
althea

Hi mate

Very nice snakes, the Madagascar hognosed are some of my favorites. They are utterly unrelated to the American hognosed, they are not only in a different genus (Leioheterodon vs. Heterodon) but are actually in a different snake family as well (Pseudoxyrhophiinae vs. Xenodontinae). In fact, all the Madagascar 'colubrids' belong to the Pseudoxyrhophiinae family and this family is much much more closely related to a cobra than it is to the American hognosed. We had a look at the venom of the giant madagascar hognosed (Leioheterodon madagascarensis) as well as the western hognosed (Heteron nasicus) in one of our most recent papers. If you are interested, follow the link below, go to the publications section and download the LC/MS paper. Its got a nice big taxonomical tree that shows the relative relationships.

Cheers
B
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
Deputy Director
Australian Venom Research Unit
University of Melbourne

www.venomdoc.com