My *fast* growing Hognose collection
 

So about three weeks ago I saw a Hognose on CL and snapped her up. Now I've got a whole collection started! These guys are like potato chips, you can't have just one!

Here's what I got today.

Red Phase Anaconda Male

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7237/7...cf93f29a_b.jpg

Look how tiny! Born in late Feb.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7232/7...2161d317_b.jpg

Belly shot, almost all black. This is a male right? I don't have a similarly sized female to compare the tail length with.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8159/7...3549cbf4_b.jpg

Here is my Red Albino Female. Can you say future Albino Anacondas?

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7263/6...b6f68178_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7191/7...3a16a3d3_b.jpg

This is a normal female that came with the Anaconda male as part of the package. I was surprised to see how light her color was.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5448/7...3d0330fb_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8001/7...5693ae73_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8155/7...349396d4_b.jpg

Here is the BIG gal that started it all. A 500 gram normal female. She may be for sale soon since I have an extreme red female coming in.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7120/6...f5b1697f_b.jpg

That "normal" female that came with the male doesn't look so "normal" to me...i'm no hognose expert, but that looks anaconda to me as well?

Looking at that belly shot/tail, it does appear to be male with that long tail.

BEAUTIFUL snakes. That red girl is killer!

You know I thought she looked anaconda as well! I just didn't want to sound dumb asking if she was one. Perhaps a Hognose expert can chime in.

More pics.

Blond/red gal

Pretending to be a rattle snake

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7216/7...00d49b96_z.jpg

Side shot, note the puffed throat (she thinks she's tough)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7099/7...20d699fd_b.jpg

Belly shots

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8012/7...35a5de95_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7236/7...df004d30_b.jpg

Here are some shots of my BIG normal gal.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7225/7...a76b840f_b.jpg

Here's her belly, more speckled.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8163/7...245175fd_b.jpg

Awesome! I need a red girl and an albino girl in my collection.

Don't we all!! Just wait till ya see the extreme red I'm getting after she lays for her current owner.

Great looking hogs! They look really good especially the conda!

While your female appears to have aberrant patterning, I don't believe she is an Anaconda based on her ventral scale coloration. I wrote a few in depth articles on how to define Anacondas based on my own collection and observations:
here
and..
here

I hope this is helpful!

I'm sorry, I must be dense, but the articles seem to contradict one another. In one you say you are certain that your aberrant with just a black belly is a normal and in the other one you say that you are uncertain but you a pretty sure it's an anaconda even though it seems to have less anaconda properties than your first aberrant.

Also I don't think it helps to compare a super anaconda belly to either a normal anaconda or a black belly since it has been established by Brent already that super anaconda have different bellies than normal anaconda (blacker, narrower).

Here is Brent's comparison and there is a huge difference in super and normal anaconda bellies.

http://www.superconda.com/htm/photog...ernmorphs.html

Have you bred either of your aberrants to anacondas yet?

I talked to Brent about my gal and he says that she has many of the qualities of an anaconda but needs to be bred to an anaconda and see if any supers are produced to know for sure.

I'm not willing to label mine an anaconda until she has been proven or disproven by breeding to an anaconda.

I'm sorry that you obviously did not understand my articles and the exact reasons why they were written. They were basically written to help discern markers on Anacondas and what has been discovered has been all the belly pattern and the "white walls", the outer sides of the ventral. In Anacondas, the edge of the ventrals should be solid white, sometimes with a little bit of solid black bleeding through, but no other pattern coloration, in my experience in hatching out 40+ Anacondas as well as a Superconda, has ever been discovered on a true Anaconda. And trust me, there's a lot of Anaconda looking aberrant patterned hognose snakes out there as well as Low-Key (normal looking) Anacondas as well and the one thing that always separates them is the "white wall" trait.

"contradict one another. In one you say you are certain that your aberrant with just a black belly is a normal..."
"Have you bred either of your aberrants to anacondas yet?"

This is probably where your "contradiction" lies, I don't know what you are referring to as far as "my" aberrants. In my first link/article, I'm merely showing the difference between a normal black belly and a Superconda/Anaconda belly, primarily the "white wall" ventral differentiation. And in the second article I'm discussing what appears to be a Low-Key Anaconda and going through all of the, then known, markers of what supposedly are exclusive to identifying Low-Key Anacondas from Normals. Nowhere have I seen where I called my one black belly female an aberrant nor do I believe that I brought up that term in regards to any of my other normals. If you would kindly show me where I have said this, perhaps I can further clarify any misunderstandings.

And just to clarify, no, I have never bred any of my Anacondas to our solid black belly female that I showed in the first link/article. She was however bred several years ago to another black belly male and of the 4 eggs that hatched, 3 were black bellied and one was not. But no Anacondas ever came from that line.

What I see with your female from the belly shots is normal coloration on the edge of the ventrals and NOT a solid "white wall". An aberrant pattern and a solid black belly are not necessarily the only indicators of an Anaconda nor are they exclusive to Anacondas.

"Also I don't think it helps to compare a super anaconda belly to either a normal anaconda or a black belly since it has been established by Brent already that super anaconda have different bellies than normal anaconda (blacker, narrower)."

"Here is Brent's comparison and there is a huge difference in super and normal anaconda bellies. "

You are partially correct in that the picture of our Superconda, Twix (that we purchased from Brent), does have a very thin black ventral pattern as seem to do with several of Brent's Supercondas as well. I used to believe that this was exclusive to Supercondas, having a thin black ventral. However, the one Superconda that we have so far hatched out this year has a wide ventral pattern like her 2 Anaconda siblings as well as every other F1 Anaconda that I've hatched out. This tells me that the thin ventral coloration is not exclusive to Supercondas, that they can also have wide ventral coloration as well. It could be that the Supercondas that Brent produced were F2s and that this has caused an even further reduction in ventral coloration. But then this raises the question as to what the lineage of our Anaconda is versus our Superconda as I know they are related to some degree, but not sure as to how close since we purchased both of them from Brent a year apart. All I know is that our own 2012 hatchling Superconda has a wide ventral compared to when we received Brent's 2009 Superconda (Twix) which even as a hatchling had a very narrow ventral. :shrug01:

And for the record (being factual, not defensive)... I know Brent, his site, and at one point, everything he had to say about Anaconda markers as I originally purchased my Anaconda from him when he sold them the first year as well as purchasing our original Superconda from him 2 years later. I've spent many hours on the phone with him, talked to him in person as well as countless emails and discussion through forums. Not once has he ever corrected me on my statements about Anaconda markers.

Brent is correct though, should you breed your Anaconda to this particular female and you produce Supercondas, you will then have verified that she is indeed an Anaconda. Based on her not having "white walls", I personally would not bet money on it. If she does prove out to be an Anaconda though, I do hope that you will email me personally (I don't frequent this site that often) and let me know so that I can reassess what I've held to be true for the last 4 years of owning and studying Anaconda traits. :)

Either way, she's a good looking hognose and I wish you all the best with her and the rest of your endeavors. They are fun snakes!