Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It was totally my fault but I did not realize why at first. I was cleaning my two year old western males cage, hes never attempted a bite and rarely even gets upset; however i was holding him in one hand and putting the sweaterbox back in the rack when i looked down and he had me between the thumb and index finger. It took me a couple minutes to get him off and I had two small fang marks on my inner hand. I experienced no effects of the bite so Im not sure if he envenomated me or not. Well my error was about an hour before the event occured I was collecting tadpoles from a retention pond that was drying up, so my explanation must be he scented the tadpole somewhere on my hand. Needless to say he immediately took a mouse after that even tho hes never been a problem feeder. Well words to the wise, disenfect hands after touching tadpoles and before holding hogs.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced a bite with no effects and if u think it was a dry bite or just no reaction to the venom?

I am surely not an expert and anyone please feel free to correct me, but here goes:

Hognose snakes do not 'inject' venom. Their 'fangs' are only enlarged teeth and are not hollow syringes connected to a venom gland like true fangs (i.e. vipers) although they do have the Duvernoy's gland. Therefore, the only way for them to envenomate you is for their saliva to leak into the hole that their 'fang' caused. At least that is my perpective.

On a lighter note, I am glad that you had no adverse reaction and I am glad that the snake was not harmed. Just another case for the argument that they are innocuous animals (except to toads and mice!)

Cheers,

Zane

Please do a search on this website for "hognose" and "venom", and look for discussions involve BGF. There you will explanations for the "enlarged teeth" being genuine fangs, as are the venom glands.

Original Poster: I kinda have problems relating your experience to one with a REAL venomous snake (ie. dry bite). Chances are it was a combination of a lack of personal sensitivity, and a lack of an effecient delivery system.

THanks for the post, and maybe you'll post more often concerning your experience when people ask?
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"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
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"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

A Dawgs fan! Gosh do I ever miss living in GA. Only a few more months until graduation...

Thanks for sharing your experience. Those Hognose sure are lethal, aren't they?!

Jennifer

My female has got me a couple of times. I ended up naming her Chewie because she would just latch on as soon as you took her out. This was when I first got her and I never had any reactions to the bites. My little future brother in law got chewed on as well with no reactions. I know one time that she had my finger I could feel the fangs, just a little poke but not too bad. I always washed my hands before handling so I dont know what her problem was. Now I rub on some purell to get that alcohol smell on my hands. No bites in quite a while,which is good since shes a bit larger now.

EP
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Occupants not paying rent:
1.1.5 balls
2.1.8 corns(candy cane, creamsicle, ghost, 4 normal,
4 anery )
1 pueblan milk
1 everglades rat
1 cal. king
1 gray band king
1 w. hognose
1 bearded dragon
1 fish
1 mouse
3.3 cats

http://www.herpnet.net/bite/
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