Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If anyone has info about these snakes, please post here! Thanks you! Any info you have will help or anywhere you know I could get good info would help! Thanks again!

Three species are commonly seen in the hobby: the giant, the blond/golden (leioheterodon modestus) and the speckled (leioheterodon geayi). The giants can easily become 6' adults, while the other two species stay in the 3-4' range as adults.
Although captive bred animals are becoming available, many to most of the animals offered for sale are wild-caught imports. As such, they may carry heavy parasite loads. They should be treated and quarantined as appropriate.

At present I keep 1.2 speckled malagasy hognose. All three have calm, serence temperaments. My ambient temp in the herp room is between 78-80 degrees, and I only offer supplemental belly heat for 24 hours after feeding. They each consume 5 f/t rat pinks every 7 days. They gently take the food from tongs, and seem to like it if I hold onto the food item until it is firmly grasped. I keep a good size water bowl in 24/7. My male especially likes to soak.

Each has an enclosure approx. the size of a 20 gal. tank. Aspen substrate, and they prefer cork slab hides to boxes, logs, etc.. They hollow out a space beneath the cork slabs to feel secure. These guys are crepuscular; most active early in the morning, and late in the afternoon. All of mine were WC subadults when acquired, and acclimated to captivity fairly easily. This will be the first season to attempt at breeding them.

I enjoy them immensely. Their inquisitive, gentle natures and pretty scalation make them interesting captives. Rather than the roll over & play dead scenario of NA hogs, these guys will freeze if they feel threatened, as if to become invisible. Mine have hissed very rarely if irritated & have never attempted to bite. I have read that their venom is not medically significant to humans.

I hope that this info is helpful to you. Are you interested in acquiring a malagasy specimen? If so, which species? Hognose.com is/was a great website. Unfortunately, I have been unable to connect to it as of late. Please post questions you have that I have not covered.

regards,
althea

What is their natural diet?

From what I have read, they eat small mammals, frogs & lizards.