Hognose vs mbk
 

I’m new to all this, and I have been wanting a snake for a long time. A hog was what I wanted for years now, but as I was searching I came across an mbk.

I’ve done fairly good research on both. That’s all I’ve done for the past two days.
I’d really like to get a hatchling to start out fresh. I’ve also never held a snake as big as a full grown mbk so I’m a little weary of getting an adult. I want to clarify I’m not scared of big snakes. I just have no experience yet with them. I’ve had people say get a hatchling, then tell me get a sub adult or adult. In the end I just want to do what’ll be best for the snake and myself.

I figured I’d make a post on here and see what some of you have to say. Opinions, experiences, advice, anything.

Thank you!

I have a pair of hogs, but have never owned a getula king (I have mountain kings, but that's quite different).

MBKs strike me as very overrated and overpriced. Yeah, they're black. Whoopee. I don't expect they have much personality, other than liking to eat everything. Herps that look cool but aren't otherwise interesting tend to get boring after a while. MBK's are known for food-driven biting; Google it and count the threads. I keep rosy boas, which have that same tendency, and it sucks.

Hogs have a ton of personality. Kind of freaky sometimes, too, though. Sometimes funny about eating -- won't feed for a while, then crazy hungry (especially males during breeding season). Very unlikely to bite unless the keeper is completely unaware of what a hungry snake looks like (I've been there, but only once, and it was completely my fault).

Try to handle a few examples of both snakes, and see which you like. (If you can't find an MBK to handle, all California kings are relevantly similar, AFAIK.) They're very different in 'texture' (hogs are rough-skinned), and activity in hand (hogs are less muscular-feeling than other colubrids). Handle a snake the size of a grown MBK (corn, other king, whatever) to see if you like that size or don't like it.

Split the difference, get yourself a melanistic Eastern hognose. Big females can get over 30", and adults are almost jet black with white chins. Do yourself a favor, and find CB, as WC tend to eat mainly toads and treefrogs, and can be a pain to switch over to rodents.