Mexican+Hognose+Snake

toc //Heterodon nasicus kennerly // Order: Squamata

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Diet Requirements

 * In the wild, Mexican hognose snakes eat toads, rodents, nestling birds, lizards, and occasionally small snakes and reptile eggs.
 * In captivity, they are fed rodents.

Notes on Enrichment & Training


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Potential Messaging


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Range and Habitat
Mexican hognose snakes live in northern Mexico, New Mexico, the Texas panhandle, and western Oklahoma. Preferred habitat is prairies, abandoned farmland, and sparsely wooded plains.

Physical Description
These snakes are short and stocky. Their coloration matches the ground color, and can be tan, brown-yellow, or gray-yellow. They also have a pattern with dark blotches. The belly often has a black and white checker pattern, sometimes also accented with orange. The nose is turned up and snoutlike, which helps the snake burrow in sandy soils when the snake moves its head in a sweeping, side-to-side motion. This species rarely grows over 2 feet in length.

Life Cycle
Breeding occurs from March through April, and females will lay eggs in late spring or early summer. Each clutch contains about 10 eggs. The eggs incubate for 2 months before hatching. Mexican hognose snakes can live 12 to 25 years.

Behavior
This species is mainly active during the morning and late afternoon hours. They are good burrowers, and will escape from both heat and cold by going underground. When they are threatened, hognose snakes will flatten their necks, raise their heads off the ground, and hiss. They may sometimes also feign strikes, but they are not apt to bite. If the threat display doesn’t work, the snake will roll onto their back and play dead, usually also emitting a foul musk and fecal matter from its cloaca and letting its tongue hang out of its mouth. (If they are put back upright while in this state, they will often roll back as if insisting that they are really dead!)

Threats and Conservation Status
=__Did you know…__=
 * Although they are not considered venomous, hognose snakes are rear-fanged and do possess a weak venom.
 * Hognoses seem to mimic rattlesnake species found in their home ranges. Western hognose snakes look very much like prairie rattlesnakes, for example.

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=__Contributors and Citations__=
 * The Philadelphia Zoo