Hognose wont eat

[acidonangles]

Okay so I keep him in a 20 gallon tank. I have a normal bulb for light set on a timer of 6:30am to 7pm. I have a heat pad that is around 85. The other side is 70. I am getting a heat lamp to heat the tank some more. I have 2 hides 2 plants and 1 water bowl almost in the middle of the tank but closer to the cool side. He is super active and goes around the tank constantly and tries to climb the walls, that or he's sleeping.
I went to an expo almost 3 weeks ago and got Nero, my snake. They said he has eaten 3 times and x-small pinkies. I let him settle in for a week and tried to just wiggle it in front of him. All he did was hiss once then tried to escape and go the other direction. So I left it in with him and dimmed the lights for an hour. The next time I tried salmon juice of the head of the pinkie, same thing happened so I left it and Nero in a 5.5 quart tube and he didn't eat it.
This Wednesday I am going to try and brain the mouse before feeding.
Any suggestions? What weight should he be? He's about 9 inches.

[wrecker45]

My female has not eaten for over two months.

[Cmwells90]

Acid, because of the cold weather MANY snakes are going off feed, usually durnial (daytime) animals more than nocturnal animals. Hoggies are sensitive to the light changes around them so I'm sure your little guy knows it's winter and is brumating, much like hibernating except they wake up to drink water n stuff. So just keep offering food weekly and make sure he's not really losing any weight, although at that size it's hard to tell. Just like Wrecker, my hoggie went off feeding around Nov.


As long as your husbandry is on point, then when they go off feed it's just a waiting game. I keep my hoggies at 88-90 on the warm side but that's just me. Also make sure you're measuring these temps with a digital thermometer so you know it's accurate, analog guages can be off by 10 degrees.

[Kuamata]

Hm... Sounds like you got everything aside from the temps, but you seem to already know they need to be warmer... and you know the various methods to tempt reptiles, too..

How about this, are all sides of the tank walls see through? Is he in a high traffic area (lots of movement)? Did the breeder specify live or f/t? What humidity is Nero being kept at?

[Kuamata]

Double post, phone being dumb. Should probably remove this one if needed.

[Derek1]

My female has not eaten for over two months.

About to hit a month for mine.

[Minkness]

Hmmm...I'm not familiar with hoggies yet though my plan is to get one in march.

However....could it be that the tank is too big?

I only ask because I have a gecko that stresses out pretty bad in larger tanks, so i have to keep him in something smaller. 5-10 gallon tank instead of a 20 long like I'd like.

Just a thought!

[Kuamata]

Would depend on age. 10 gal is acceptable for a little one, but 20 gal would better fit an adult. A little one can be in a 20 gal if plenty of hides are provided (more than 2).

[TempestK]

Still, a baby snake can be overwhelmed in a big cage like that. Keep in mind that snakes in the wild spend most of their time in little holes in the ground or some similar tight situation. Time of year is important as was noted also. They seem to know no matter what conditions we provide. I've got a couple makes that haven't eaten since November also, and they did the same thing last year. The females continue to eat, so go figure. But the best trick I've found to get a stubborn hognose to eat is a simple thing I got from a breeder friend, and that is to put them and the food in a paper bag and leave them for a while. Just a brown lunch sack will do. That's actually how I got my females to start eating consistently when I got them last year.

[Minkness]

Really? What is it about a brown paper bag? What about a shoe box?

[TempestK]

Too much room for a baby hognose in a shoebox. In fact, I house my baby snakes in plastic shoeboxes. A lunch sack is not only completely dark but is also very confined. You can achieve this with a deli cup and it works well for little king snakes who won't eat, but the hoggies seem to like it dark. Make sense as they are burrowers. There's an excellent book by John Berry on Western Hognoses if you're into books. A bit pricey, but worth every penny.

[Minkness]

Hmmm....

I hate to hijack this threat but I'm learning so much from it. I hope you all don't mind if I ask other questions. If you do, please just PM your answers.

I plan on getting a small hoggie in march. I have a 5 gallon tank that will be available by then as I will be upgrading my MBK to a 10 soon. Would it be better to keep the hoggie in a small critter keeper until it's larger then move it into the 5 gallon?

I have small, medium, large critter keepers, but, I also have a 3 gallon cylinder fish tank. What would be the best for a small hoggie that promotes good feeding response, but also heats well, and easy to tame down?

[TempestK]

My experience tells me that whichever one of those closest approximates the size of a plastic shoebox would be best. Those are about 6 in. by 12 in. by about 4 in high. But then that's just what I've had success with.

[Minkness]

Probably the medium then. But how do you heat up a shoebox?

[acidonangles]

He is very movement bound. The tank is see through. F/t and being kept at 30-40 percent humidity. He sleeps in the open a d almost never burrows or go into the hides provided. And it's fine if you also ask questions Minkness,

[acidonangles]

He is very movement bound and the tank is a see through glass. They said he ate frozen thawed and is being kept at 30-40% humidity. How much should he weigh? I have a scale but I am not sure if it's correct because it says he is 0.4 oz

[acidonangles]

[QUOTE=Minkness;945927]Hmmm....

I hate to hijack this threat but I'm learning so much from it. I hope you all don't mind if I ask other questions. If you do, please just PM your answers./QUOTE]


Ask way. The more people know the better.

[Cmwells90]

He is very movement bound and the tank is a see through glass. They said he ate frozen thawed and is being kept at 30-40% humidity. How much should he weigh? I have a scale but I am not sure if it's correct because it says he is 0.4 oz

I wouldn't worry too much. The issue with the weight is that babies all grow so differently, some grow very quickly while young, others don't. So if I gave you the weight of my hoggie at that age, it will surely be different.

[acidonangles]

Thanks guys :) Just as a first time snake owner i am worried. I am feeding him tomorrow and hoping he takes it. What are the signs that he wants to eat? Like some will strike at it but i am not sure if thats true for hognose snakes.

[Cmwells90]

Thanks guys :) Just as a first time snake owner i am worried. I am feeding him tomorrow and hoping he takes it. What are the signs that he wants to eat? Like some will strike at it but i am not sure if thats true for hognose snakes.

Don't worry I'm sure most of us have been there, I would ask questions just to be sure it wasn't something to worry about! The only sign I use is if my hoggie is active, but lately that seems to not be working because he's active, just not eating. So I would just keep offering until he decides he's ready to eat again haha.

[Minkness]

Here's a question....

If you thaw the food item and the snake refuses, can you refreez and thaw to feed later?

[Tsubaki]

You can, there was an entire topic about not too long ago actually. I would be careful refreezing more than once, it doesn't do the quality any good. The prey might go mushy and burst open when the snake grabs it.

[SnoopySnake]

Here's a question....

If you thaw the food item and the snake refuses, can you refreez and thaw to feed later?

Yes, however I would only refreeze once and wouldn't refreeze pinks. I did that once and the pinkie bursted while freezing and the other one bursted when the snake grabbed it.

[Minkness]

Ew...thanks for the heads up!

[Kuamata]

Thanks guys :) Just as a first time snake owner i am worried. I am feeding him tomorrow and hoping he takes it. What are the signs that he wants to eat? Like some will strike at it but i am not sure if thats true for hognose snakes.

My hoggie, when I had him, just kinda went at it... No strike or S shaped coil back, just slithered up to it and -nom!-. Often made the mistake of biting the belly, but, eh, he got it eventually lol.

[Minkness]

Lol my girl git the belly of hers last I fed. She looked frustrated as she tried fitting it in sideways XD

She got it eventually...from the tail!

Being a newb I worried "omg what if eating it backwards is baaad!" But she got it all down nice and easy so I figured so long as the end result was the same, nose or tail first shouldn't matter lol.

[Kuamata]

Lol my girl git the belly of hers last I fed. She looked frustrated as she tried fitting it in sideways XD

She got it eventually...from the tail!

Being a newb I worried "omg what if eating it backwards is baaad!" But she got it all down nice and easy so I figured so long as the end result was the same, nose or tail first shouldn't matter lol.

Being already dead, nah, doesn't really matter. If it were live, then, yeah. Back end first would make it easier to attack the snake, but I know you feed dead, so.

[Minkness]

That's right! Lol

[Eggplant]

I recently saw a video of a hognose going after some boiled egg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF5xt_V4Ge4

So I let my hognose (Brent) smell the fork I was using to eat my egg this morning. She went crazy for it o_O.. Which was surprising because she rarely ever strikes at her food.

I did some research and found that it shouldn't be harmful for them to eat cooked egg (apparently they do eat raw eggs in the wild) though it probably wont be good if you ONLY feed them egg.

I suggest you try scenting your mice with egg (I think both yolk and white is ok). Or just stick to feeding her some egg (cut up) for now and once she starts eating egg try switching over to mice by scenting the mice with egg.

[Eggplant]

Being already dead, nah, doesn't really matter. If it were live, then, yeah. Back end first would make it easier to attack the snake, but I know you feed dead, so.

My hog successfully ate a live fuzzy backwards yesterday night. Took her almost 30 mins :no: poor mousie

[Eggplant]

Thanks guys :) Just as a first time snake owner i am worried. I am feeding him tomorrow and hoping he takes it. What are the signs that he wants to eat? Like some will strike at it but i am not sure if thats true for hognose snakes.

Well for my hog, she usually acts offended when I try to offer her food. This goes on for about a minute while I chase her around her viv with the mice in tweezers till she realizes that it's food. Then she'll usually stop moving and kinda rub her face on it:confused: and lick it:confused:. This lasts another minute or so. Finally, she'll slowly open her mouth and gently take it from my tweezers.

Her feeding response is much stronger when faced with bursted frozens and live ones.