All animals

Where is the hognose snake legal?

Heterodon spp.. Restricted in 1 of the 7 jurisdictions checked. Every entry quotes the rule it comes from.

Alabama: no restriction found for hognose snakeAlaska: no restriction found for hognose snakeArizona: no restriction found for hognose snakeArkansas: no restriction found for hognose snakeCalifornia: no restriction found for hognose snakeColorado: no restriction found for hognose snakeConnecticut: no restriction found for hognose snakeDelaware: no restriction found for hognose snakeFlorida: no restriction found for hognose snakeGeorgia: no restriction found for hognose snakeHawaii: banned for hognose snakeIdaho: no restriction found for hognose snakeIllinois: no restriction found for hognose snakeIndiana: no restriction found for hognose snakeIowa: no restriction found for hognose snakeKansas: no restriction found for hognose snakeKentucky: no restriction found for hognose snakeLouisiana: no restriction found for hognose snakeMaine: no restriction found for hognose snakeMaryland: no restriction found for hognose snakeMassachusetts: no restriction found for hognose snakeMichigan: no restriction found for hognose snakeMinnesota: no restriction found for hognose snakeMississippi: no restriction found for hognose snakeMissouri: no restriction found for hognose snakeMontana: no restriction found for hognose snakeNebraska: no restriction found for hognose snakeNevada: no restriction found for hognose snakeNew Hampshire: no restriction found for hognose snakeNew Jersey: no restriction found for hognose snakeNew Mexico: no restriction found for hognose snakeNew York: no restriction found for hognose snakeNorth Carolina: no restriction found for hognose snakeNorth Dakota: no restriction found for hognose snakeOhio: no restriction found for hognose snakeOklahoma: no restriction found for hognose snakeOregon: no restriction found for hognose snakePennsylvania: no restriction found for hognose snakeRhode Island: no restriction found for hognose snakeSouth Carolina: no restriction found for hognose snakeSouth Dakota: no restriction found for hognose snakeTennessee: no restriction found for hognose snakeTexas: no restriction found for hognose snakeUtah: no restriction found for hognose snakeVermont: no restriction found for hognose snakeVirginia: no restriction found for hognose snakeWashington: no restriction found for hognose snakeWest Virginia: no restriction found for hognose snakeWisconsin: no restriction found for hognose snakeWyoming: no restriction found for hognose snakeDistrict of Columbia: no restriction found for hognose snake

Select a state for the rule behind its colour. Alaska, Hawaii and the District of Columbia are drawn out of position so they can be clicked.

What the colours mean

  • Banned (1)No legal way to keep one, and no permit to apply for.
  • Permit requiredLegal, but you need a permit or licence before the animal arrives.
  • Conditions applyLegal without a permit only if a stated condition is met, such as a generation, a size or an indoor-only rule.
  • UnclearThe rule genuinely does not resolve for this animal. Ask the agency before relying on it.
  • No restriction foundNothing in the body of law we read restricts this animal here.

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Every restriction on the hognose snake

1 of the 7 jurisdictions checked restrict this animal in some way. The rest had no rule we could find.

Hawaii

Banned§ 4-71-6
Serpentes (all species)

Hawaii bans the entire snake suborder with no exception for harmless species, having no native snakes to protect.

How this rule works: The list that matters most for pet keepers and the one almost never quoted. Conditional approval means importation and possession are allowed subject to the conditions the Board of Agriculture sets, unlike the restricted list, which is research and exhibition only.

Hawaii Administrative Rules, List of Conditionally Approved Animals (Hawaii Department of Agriculture official PDF) →

For the full write-up, including the states that get reported wrongly, read the hognose snake legal guide.

Past the legal question? See the hognose snake profile.

How to read this

A state with no colour is one where nothing in the law we read restricts that animal. That is not the same as a guarantee: it means no restriction was found in the specific body of law checked for that state, which is recorded alongside each jurisdiction. Cities and counties regularly ban animals their state allows, and several states say so in their own rules.

Hatched grey means the rule genuinely does not resolve. Usually a definition arguably reaches the animal without naming it, and the honest answer is to ask the agency rather than to guess. Those entries are marked unclear on purpose rather than being rounded to a yes or a no.

Every entry links to the regulation it came from. None of this is legal advice, laws change without much notice, and the agency that issues the permit is always the last word. For the federal layer and how state schemes are structured, see the exotic pet legal hub.