documentation of my reaction to the bite of a western hognose snake

Documentation of my Reaction to the Bite of a Western Hognose Snake~~^~^~^~^~^:)--< SnakeLady Greta >--(:^~^~^~^~^~~

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Background information

On May 3rd, 2008, I purchased a pair of western hognose snakes from a fellow herper at the Raleigh

Reptile and Exotic Pets Expo. He was selling them because the female hognose had bitten his young

son on the finger without provocation. (The child didn’t have any reaction from the bite, but he

didn’t want to take any chances).

The male was named Harley. The female was named Jessica. I know too many people named Jessica

and the name just didn’t fit. We decided to keep the name in the “motorcycle” realm, even though

only Harley’s are ever considered “hogs.” We renamed the female Suzuki (or Suzi, for short).

On May 19th, 2008, I was holding Suzi while I was surfing the web. Hognoses have really sharp,

hardened snouts which they use to DIG! She was digging away into my hand. It hurt at first but

before long, I started getting used to the sensation. Then CHOMP! She had latched onto my left ring

finger and refused to let go. Hognoses are rear-fanged. Those “tiny” fangs are not so tiny when

they’re going through your skin! Suzi was SURE she had a meal and refused to let go. I tried tapping

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her in the nose. She chomped down harder. I tried cold water. No effect! Warm water didn’t faze her

either. I reached for the mouth wash. I poured a little on her face. THAT got her attention!

I rinsed her with water (didn’t want her to have any lasting effects from the mouth wash.

I placed her back into her cage, pulled out my cell phone camera, and started documenting the

effects on my finger.

I also requested that my partner, Keith, bring up a few frozen pinkies to thaw. Later, Suzi ate FIVE

thawed pinkies. Yup, she was hungry!

Suzi was thus re-named “Piggy Sue.”

The following photos were posted to my tumblr account

http://snakelady.tumblr.com/archive/2008/5

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And this photo was taken the following day after the bite. (Notice how both snakes look the same size here!)

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Harley has never even TRIED to bite me. He is rarely even interested in eating.

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Piggy Sue, on the other hand, LOVES to eat…. Hoppers, fuzzies, pinkies, ring-fingers…

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Here you see them emerging from one of their favorite hiding places. I don’t mind, as long as they don’t start digging!

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Piggy has grown to at least twice the size of Harley in less than a year after bringing them home!

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Harley is left; Piggy Sue is on the right.

.“Snakes on a boob”