Reply by mingdurga — 2018-03-08 21:15:16 GMT

Plus 150 grams, mate her. I've done it many times. Just make sure she's a "stocky" 150

Mike

Reply by markg — 2018-01-24 23:04:33 GMT

Uh.. food and time.

You mean for 2018 breeding season? My advice is to wait until 2019 if she is a young hoggie and still small.

Reply by Eric13 — 2016-10-31 19:35:06 GMT

Male4

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www.redhot-reptiles.com

Reply by Eric13 — 2016-10-31 19:33:50 GMT

Male9

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www.redhot-reptiles.com

Reply by markg — 2016-10-13 00:42:05 GMT

If you are knowledgeable with electrical systems, then you may want to use a separate ON/OFF controller to control the temps rather than the internal thermostat.

Many fridges control temperature by ON/OFF switching to a compressor or other mechanism that uses house power. If that is so in yours, then a qualified person can wire a separate t-stat in. The warranty of the fridge will be void at that point, but it will probably work better .

Something like a Johnson Controls or Ranco ON/OFF thermostat that has Cool mode (most have both heat and cool mode settings). These controllers are extremely reliable - more so typically than thermostats that come with small fridges.

You can also use an external controller as a safety. Set that for your absolute lowest temperature, then use the internal controller for what you want. For example, set the fridge controller for 50 deg and set the external Johnson or Ranco ON/OFF thermostat for 48 deg. This way, the animals are safe if the internal thermostat fails ON = cool. I know hoggies are tough snakes and can handle cold temps, but still.

Don't do anything you are not comfortable doing, and all wires/connections must be enclosed. The mentioned thermostats already come in NEMA-rated boxes that meet/exceed home ratings. Please refer to a qualified electrician before attempting any mods. Bad and/or exposed wiring is not a good thing.

Reply by jhh273 — 2016-10-01 01:48:19 GMT

I tried to use a refrigerator with a thermostat to cut the power off when unit reached 50 degrees F. When power cut off at 50 F the unit continued to cool for a few minutes and was getting down to 45F before stabilizing and eventually reaching 50F. I do not know if a gradual change of 4 to 5 degrees would be problematic but all the eggs I had were in that unit and I abandoned the project. The refrigerator I was trying to use was a convection type. I built a room 3x6x8 feet well insulated and cooled it with a window style air conditioner. If it had been old style refrigerator with fan blowing air over coils I think it would operate within a closer range.

Reply by lesserismore — 2016-09-30 23:29:43 GMT

Yes,it goes from 34-50 it's a short range. It I wasn't planning on using it for anything else.

Reply by markg — 2016-09-30 21:01:46 GMT

Does it have an adjustable thermostat suitable for brumation temps?

Reply by kingofspades — 2017-04-22 19:16:46 GMT

I have a small female toffee doing the same thing, so I threw my male toffee conda with her. If she lays a few eggs, cool. If not, no biggy.
-----
"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

www.youtube.com/reptilenexus

Reply by jhh273 — 2016-09-21 02:23:50 GMT

My female was up to only 150 grams.

Reply by jsun — 2016-09-20 09:05:27 GMT

Thanks for sharing your experience, but my female is only 80 grams at the moment. I don't want to risk losing her, so if they are egg follicles, maybe she'll reabsorb them.

Reply by jhh273 — 2016-09-17 18:42:50 GMT

I had one female less than a year of age lay 6 good eggs. One egg went bad, one died during hatching and 4 youngsters survived. I did not brumate this pair. I dropped male in with her to see if he was interested in females at his young age. I did not see the breeding.

Reply by kingofspades — 2016-07-09 04:41:08 GMT

I called the Colorado Department of Environmental Protection when I had a gentleman interested in babies from me (in CT) and they told me that I COULD NOT ship to Colorado. Some crap about wanting to protect the native population from captive diseases.
-----
"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

www.youtube.com/reptilenexus

Reply by markg — 2016-06-14 21:56:04 GMT

Look on the classifieds here - so many people selling hognose. Everywhere hognose.

And for good reason. They are neat snakes, I like how their bodies look like little rattlesnakes. They have relatively high metabolisms, meaning they can eat often and produce waste often. They can also seasonally refuse food, which is not an issue as long as they have correct body weight.

Most folks that keep hogs really like them, often to the exclusion of other colubrids. They are incredibly adaptive in captivity, and they can tolerate larger temperature swings than many snakes.

Another thing I like about hognose - I think the normal coloration, which can vary, is just awesome. Morphs are cool for sure, but with hognose, I simply like the way they are. In fact, the hognose is the only snake species I have where I do not have some type of color morph (they could be hets for something..). All other snakes I have are morphs or intended to reproduce morphs.

Reply by Jonrice — 2016-03-17 04:30:13 GMT

Looks like a regular Arctic to me but you never know until you prove him out to be a conda. I've seen some super low expression condos before that look like normals. Congrats on the Arctic Gene they are very interesting I know I have 8 adults going this year

Reply by jrleonard72 — 2016-05-02 00:42:48 GMT

There usually aren't any tricks to getting a hog to take a f/t pink, except for time! Hogs can be VERY stubborn. Any change in their decor, temp, surroundings (outside the cage), etc. can throw off their eating... With that said, just let him be for a while and give him time to adapt.

My question for you is this: is he active or does he spent the day hiding? An active snake is usually on the search for food while an inactive snake is either scared or content.

Here's a trick I've used for my stubborn hogs... Take away his water for about a week or two. After you're sure he's thirsty, dip the head of the f/t pinky in some water. As the snake tries to drink the water off the head of the pinky, sometimes they end up eating the pinky!

Another trick, that never fails (and as the other guy suggested), feed him strips of hardboiled eggs. If you're concerned that he isn't getting calcium, then dip it into some reptile calcium. My hogs LOVE hardboiled eggs and usually get them as treats. After taking eggs a couple of times, they usually take to f/t pinks really quick!

I hope some of this is helpful. Just be patient and he should come around in time. You're definitely doing the right thing by asking others for help!

Good luck!.. Jeff L.

Reply by markg — 2016-03-11 17:57:10 GMT

There are folks here that probably have more experience with this specific issue with hognose. I have raised about 20 hatchling hognose. Only for one stubborn individual did I have to scent - I used spring water from a tuna can. I washed the thawed pinky and dipped it in the tuna water.

People have used toad scent, salmon scent, sardine scent.

In my experience with colubrids in general, the few that demand live food will often eat F/T when it is scented with something that they like. I do not recall many colubrids that were this picky, but I did have a few Sinaloans that would only eat F/T when scented with lizard tail that I kept frozen for that purpose. The same snakes would eat live unscented mice without issue.

I have also found that f/t mice that have been frozen for less than 3 months are more readily accepted. I am always having frozen mice shipped to me. Expensive because of the shipping, but it works really well. I have rosies that are extremely sensitive to mice that are frozen for too long - the snakes flat out refuse to eat them. Other species like kingsnakes will eat almost anything in any condition.

Another trick is to scent with a live mouse. Soiled bedding from a live mouse can sometimes work. Wash a thawed pink and rub it in the bedding. You can even bring some bedding back from any store from a cage housing live mice, even Petco, (though not all Petco employees will engage you on this..)

Reply by EvanJolly — 2016-03-09 19:01:35 GMT

Yes. We have tried feeding him multiple times. He's new to us. Only had him about 5 weeks. The guy I got him from only fed him live and I can't get live where I live. I have not been trying to handle him yet and try to feed him about once a week. I locked him in the deli cup he was shipped in over night a week or so ago with a brained pinky. He ate it but regurgitated. Just wondering if there was any other tricks to try to get this little guy kicked off eating for me.

Reply by markg — 2016-03-09 18:49:59 GMT

Did you try it yet? You may be surprised. No tricks are needed in the vast majority of cases if the snake is already eating unscented pinkies.

In fact, it is my opinion that hogs are one snake that will eat almost anything. I have had mine eat strips of fish like a garter snake would. There is a video on Youtube of one eating pieces of hard boiled egg.

Reply by EvanJolly — 2016-03-10 12:50:52 GMT

I know I should be concerned. That's why I posted on this forum. I'm not totally sure he ate and regurgitated. The mouse may have just looked extra nasty from sitting out all night. Just cant get him to eat. The guy I bought him only fed live and keeps telling me to try live pinks but I don't have access to live ones where I live. I have other hogs and never had issues getting them to eat. What should I do? Try acenting? Brain in them makes no difference. He still refuses.

Reply by jhh273 — 2016-03-10 03:11:57 GMT

Many breeders report hatching weights of 10 grams. I have never
hatched many that heavy; a six month snake should weigh more than 10 grams. Do you know the weight of the snake when hatched? The fact that the snake is long and thin, and regurgitated his meal, along with a history of slow to no growth should be concerning to the owner.

Reply by markg — 2016-03-07 21:27:48 GMT

Valid points - snakes do not sweat and therefore lose minerals as fast as say humans do, snakes typically do not drink much water anyway. I must agree the logic seems to stand.

If you look on the web (so it must be true...) there are as many pro-distilled water articles as there are anti-distilled water articles. All say that distilled water raises acidity.

I'll stick to filtered water for herps, you can do your distilled. But now I am wondering what I should drink? lol Apparently softdrinks often use distilled water because carbon is more easily absorbed in distilled. That is why softdrinks offer no minerals, and that is a complaint by doctors besides the chemicals and sugar.

Reply by jhh273 — 2016-03-02 03:44:35 GMT

You are correct in thinking the hognose snake gets his minerals from his food and not his water. The variety of minerals in his normal diet far surpasses any minerals that he might get from water. Much of wild hognose snakes water is soaked up by body
in contact with moisture and no minerals acquired. I used distilled water for several years because evaporation leaves no scale in the watering device ; a plus unless you are using disposable cups.
.

Reply by EvanJolly — 2016-02-29 21:56:42 GMT

Thanks for the advice. I have them all in a rack. My concern was one of my males didn't eat for 3 months and was wondering if I needed to add anything to his water while he wasn't eating since he was staying so active. However, having said that, he finally took a mouse yesterday so not an issue anymore thanks again.

Reply by markg — 2016-02-29 21:01:15 GMT

My take on the hydration thing is this: if your caging allows the snake to conserve water, then you do not need electrolytes added. Do not use distilled water ever - no minerals. Added electrolytes once in awhile never hurts of course, it is just not needed when caging is correct.

Cages that allow snakes to conserve moisture are basically cages that limit ventilation. Glass cages with full screen tops do not allow snakes to conserve moisture as well unless you provide a humid hide (at least true where I live in the southwest). Screen tops generally suck. (Those petco snake kits suck in that regard.)

I have been "testing" the usage of vitamins. I have various snakes of different species that I have done occasional vitamin dusting of their food, and I have some animals that I did not. I dust all with calcium however, a very light dusting of the food. Health-wise I cannot see much difference, but I will say this - the vitamin-laden snakes do seem to have slightly enhanced coloration. Certain colors like red and yellow seem to stand out a bit more. At first I thought it was just individual differences, but now I think there is a trend.

Works for birds, so why not reptiles? Since I know nothing about what causes color in reptiles vs birds, I could be wrong here.

Reply by jhh273 — 2016-02-28 03:37:44 GMT

Theoretically he would not need vitamins. However not being outside to have sun light and a varied diet he could have a need for some added nutrition. About once a month I will drag the mouse over a small spot of vitamin powder with D3 for reptiles. Some hogs will reject the prey if the scent is altered making vitamin addition difficult at times.

Reply by EvanJolly — 2016-02-28 02:59:19 GMT

Thanks for the response. What about vitamins? Seems like he would need something cosidering how active he is.

Reply by jhh273 — 2016-02-28 02:14:13 GMT

Snakes do not sweat. They do not urinate. They excrete uric acid.
They are moisture conserving and can survive arid regions as well as humid ones. If your snake starts getting wrinkled and losing weight give him a soak in warm water. His electrolytes should be fine.

Reply by Jonrice — 2016-02-16 03:20:26 GMT

40 plus

Reply by Jonrice — 2016-02-16 03:19:17 GMT

Prolly a female. Males have 4o

Reply by markg — 2016-02-05 18:43:39 GMT

Sounds like a snake that is going into shed. They often get pissy. Not just hogs, but many other species as well.

Do you have a hide on the warm area for this snake? Please put one in if not. Reptile Basics sell inexpensive black plastic low-height hides that work well. Of course, a hoggie will gladly just burrow into substrate if it is deep enough to cover the snake with at least an inch.

Reply by Whitesabbath891 — 2016-02-01 15:05:24 GMT

I can't even take her out of the tank to weigh her. Every time I stick my hand in to grab her, she strikes and hisses at me. She strikes and hisses at anyone who walks into that room.

Reply by simus343 — 2016-02-01 15:01:02 GMT

How much weight is she losing? Defecation cause a noticeable weight drop, easily in the double digit grams. My female Eastern Hog recently made a 10 gram drop when she finished digesting her most recent leopard frog. After that she has dropped a few more grams as she continues to defecate a little extra that wasn't part of the "initial load". This has all been over approximately a 2 week period (just a few days short).

Unless your snake starts to drop grams fast I wouldn't worry. Sometimes snakes just don't want to eat back to back weekly meals in captivity. I've had snakes go from eating weekly to refusing food for about a month before they would start eating again. Nothing was changed with their living conditions, the snakes just had no interest in food for a while.

The best thing you could do at this point is just offer food every 2-3 days, leave it for a few hours. If the snake shows no interest, take it out and try again a few days later.

Also with the shed cycle, the start of the cycle isn't very obvious. Their eyes just don't go "blue" overnight. They gradually get a little dull. The dull hue is hard to notice, but seems to be most easily observed on the ventral side of the snake that is a bit more "glossy". I've seen the first signs of a shed cycle appear as early as 3 weeks before the eyes start to go opaque.

I wouldn't worry if the weight isn't dropping very rapidly.

Reply by Whitesabbath891 — 2016-01-27 02:08:48 GMT

She IS losing weight. That's why I'm so worried.

Reply by jusmebabe — 2016-01-27 02:06:36 GMT

Sorry but i had to laugh reading the part about not eating in a week and a half.
Hogs can go long periods without feeding. Their unique that way.
My 4 month old didn't eat for about 6 or 7 weeks and then starting eating.
If it's not losing weight, dehydrated, or other signs of being sick I wouldn't worry.

Reply by kingofspades — 2015-12-26 20:20:38 GMT

They dont, but in my experiences, I get stronger clutches, more eggs and less slugs with brumation.
-----
"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

www.youtube.com/reptilenexus

Reply by Jonrice — 2015-12-22 05:44:09 GMT

I tried no brumation last year and got zero fertile eggs. I've brumate done in seasons before last and hit 60-70%. I keep mine warm though with an ambient temps at 84-85 and a hot spot of 91-93. I don't think brumation is necessary but a fluctuation in temperatures and photoperiod can't bring negative result in the end in my opinion.

Reply by simus343 — 2015-12-18 13:52:30 GMT

Thanks for the information FR. That's sort of what I remembered the end consensus to be, just wanted to make sure

Reply by FR — 2015-12-14 21:26:52 GMT

There is no, one way or the other. If you have a hot cage, then yes, your going to need to cool them. If you have a cage with a range of temps and they can choose a cooler area, and go to heat when they want, no you will not need to brumate them. Or if you balance it just right, you may not need to cool them. Generally speaking, most reptiles need cool temps to conserve energy. So they reproduce in the season where they have the ability to reach cool temps and warm temps.

Reply by markg — 2015-12-11 23:25:28 GMT

Hogs do push their faces into what they think is soil with a good amount of force. I could see the mouth being pushed open. On the other hand, hogs are crazy little snakes when it comes to food.

If you said it was a Cal king eating the blanket, I wouldn't have thought twice.

Reply by FR — 2015-11-26 14:26:59 GMT

There is no such thing as 2 this or that is enough. If a snake seeks food, its hungry. For a comparison, I watched a wild kennerlyi, eating toads, until they would hang out of its mouth, and it was so full, it was crapping them out at the same time.
Captive conditions normally do not support that ability but its not about the snake or what the snake wants. They want to feed.
Feeding, digesting etc, is without question based on conditions, temps, humidity etc. Wild snakes, feed when very cool, then seek heat to digest what they consumed. The larger the bolus the higher the temps, until the bolus breaks down, then they move to lower temps.
If a snake is hungry, feed it, then observe what happens and go from there. This two items stuff is like following instructions on making a toy plane from a cheap kit. The snakes are more then simple instructions.
About eating non food items, there is a difference between accidentaly getting a tooth caught on a blanket, and attempting to eat a blanket. Its the keepers task to determine which is which.

Reply by simus343 — 2015-11-26 03:19:33 GMT

If it is 13 grams and you fed it 2 days prior to the 'incident' and it had not defecated yet, then it would be considered enough. 1-2 appropriately sized food items and then wait until defecation.

Biting the sheets may have been a fluke incident. Nothing to do with the parasite, just phrasing. I use to have a western and I currently keep easterns. Occasionally they will "bite" non-food surfaces as they try to dig into them. Just from pressing into the surface in an attempt to burrow, their mouth will sometimes open as the rostrum pushes against the surface and cause their teeth to snag the surface if it is fibrous like a sheet or piece of clothing. It doesn't happen often, but my western did it once and my easterns a few times.

As far as a feeding strike, this will be a very aggressive attack on whatever the hognose is biting and is usually only triggered by a scent stimulus.

Reply by Jonrice — 2015-11-19 23:09:06 GMT

I would feed him again. Sounds like you got a hog of a hognose 😄