baby western hognose hasnt ever eaten for me and i got him 10/7/14!!!! HELP!!!

kuester · 11-11-14, 02:18 PM

I needed a new thread so more people will respond. I received my baby 6" western hognose who had eaten 2 times before shipment, but wont eat for me! I had him in a 45g tank then to a 10g after 2 weeks of not eating. today im going to try and feed him in his cage with a egg white scented pinkie and a tuna scented pinkie if he doesn't eat today im putting him in a 5"w x 9"l x 6 1/2"h cage. his hot spot is 87 and cool side is about 74 in 10g, they will increase slightly in smaller cage, I will wait a few days of him being in new enclosure before trying to feed again. any other advice please don't hesitate!

kiiarah · 11-12-14, 03:13 AM

I don't keep hoggies, so I'm afraid I don't have any specific advise, but I can say that tuna scenting worked well with my ball python. I am not sure if hoggies slow down when the weather starts to get colder, but I know in some species it is common. Might be something worth doing a search on to see if that may have anything to do with it. With bps stress and imminent shed seem to be the two major factors in poor feeding response. Feeding him in the enclosure couldn't hurt. Hopefully someone with direct experience will chime in soon, but in the meantime how old is he and do you know his history (last shed, previous enclosure size and conditions, prior diet and feeding schedule, etc..)?

kuester · 11-12-14, 09:54 AM

I will check later today if he ate in his cage I put in some egg whites and half a pinkie on one side and on the other a tuna scented half pinkie. when scenting do you leave a tiny bit a tuna meat on the mouse? no the breeder discards all of those things when the snake is sold which is dumb sounding to me, the breeder wants me for force feed....

kuester · 11-12-14, 10:46 AM

he ate! 7 egg whites and 1/2 pinkie mouse last night!!

kiiarah · 11-12-14, 12:15 PM

Hooray!! I am so glad to hear it ^_^. I can't believe the breeder would suggest force feeding. I mean I suppose if there was dramatic weight loss, but really to suggest force feeding before having tried scenting seems grossly irresponsible. It is great that you got him to eat on his own though. If you don't already have a scale I would pick one up just in case he ever gets picky again. Even a month isn't necessarily unusual for a snake to refuse food and just about anything can trigger it. The primary thing is to remember that they will get hungry eventually and eat on their own. If he does go off feed again, you can keep your sanity and peace of mind my monitoring his weight. As long as he is not losing a great deal of weight you know it hasn't been too long. I have read stories of ball pythons going a year or more without food and hardly losing weight, then resuming feeding like nothing happened. Not sure what the "record" would be for hoggies but even a few months wouldn't surprise me.

Oh and with the tuna scenting I usually just dip the head in the juice and then pat it dry, then blow dry it the rest of the way. The tuna can be really sticky and I am using shredded aspen, so I try to minimize bedding sticking to the rat by making sure it is completely dry before putting it in.

**EL Ziggy** · 11-12-14, 01:36 PM

Congrats on the successful feed!

sharthun · 11-12-14, 01:44 PM

Great news! Now try to relax!

**Aaron_S** · 11-12-14, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiiarah

... Even a month isn't necessarily unusual for a snake to refuse food and just about anything can trigger it. The primary thing is to remember that they will get hungry eventually and eat on their own....

I know you mean well. You're asking a lot of questions of your own and that's great to see you have your pet and others at top of mind.

However, you're giving out poor information. In an earlier post you also mentioned about snakes not eating and why. You aren't wrong in that a shed might cause a snake not to eat for a single week but it's not the reason why they would hold out for weeks or months. "Stress" you also mentioned but it's a very general and broad statement.

"Stress" is usually related to husbandry issues. Quite often it's simply a re-check of husbandry to get the animal to eat again. Most keepers don't want to fault themselves so it goes overlooked and the blame is placed on the animal or the prey for whatever reason.

All these tricks are pretty pointless if husbandry is absolutely correct. I have never ever in the hundreds of ball pythons I've dealt with had to use tuna scenting. This includes wild caught babies and adults all the way to CBB babies and adults.

As for this hognose snake, without more details of the set up it's difficult to pinpoint the problem. I'm glad it ate. No clue why it's eating egg whites though. That's just silly. Solutions are usually far more simple than most people realize.