This beautiful little snake is a baby WESTERN HOGNOSE SNAKE, which in the wild would be found from southern Canada throughout central USA to eastern Mexico.  These pictures were taken when I acquired him in September 2009, he weighed just 11 grammes! 

Hognose snakes are harmless and very docile snakes but if they feel threatened by a predator in the wild they can hiss loudly and flatten their neck like a cobra!  The hissing sounds like a puffing noise, and this is why I have decided to call this little snake Puff!  If this bluffing display does not scare the predator away, a hognose snake will pretend to be dead by lying on its back and letting its mouth hang open.  The belly is very different in colour and pattern to the top surface of the snake's skin as you can see here:

Hognose snakes get their common name due to their funny-looking upturned snout, which is used to dig through the soil in search for frogs and toads, which form the majority of their diet in the wild.  You can see Puff's upturned snout really clearly in the next picture, and his jet black tongue in the one which follows:

Puff is an especially attractive western hognose snake as he has a lovely greenish tinge to his skin, which is best seen when he is sitting on aspen bedding, which I use as the substrate to his enclosure.  I am very much looking forward to seeing how his colour and pattern change as he gets older and bigger, but these snakes rarely reach more than about 60cm anyway!