Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My Western hognose that I have referenced here for months is still not eating. Here is a recap.

Female W. Hog (1 year old)
Ate every week from Aug to Oct
Stopped eating from Oct to Jan
Ate two times in Jan
Hasnt eaten since
My husbandry is fine (all my other hogs eat perfectly)
I took her to the vet 2 weeks ago
Vet said "ahh this hog might have stomatitus!"
Vet gave me antibiotics to give the hog for a week
After giving snake antibiotics i waited 4 days
Tried feeding it twice since then
I had a hard time opening the snakes mouth to give it meds
Now the vet told me to try baby food (protein based)

Its hard for me to open its mouth, but today, I managed to get a pinkies tail in it, I think it ate it ok. Heres the deal. I don't think a pinkies tail will do anything (do you??) I was hoping to get the whole pinky in there, but like I said, when I try to open her mouth, I can't keep it open. She bleeds a little because I try for like 10 straight minutes.

My next resort is to bring her back to the vet and say "keep her until she eats, try what you want".

Any advice? The vet said I shouldn't worry about opening her mouth, it won't hurt her. "snakes mouths are made to stretch", he said. True?
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1.0.0 Common Snapping Turtle (Aggro)
1.1.0 Bearded Dragons
1.1.0 Western Hognose(hets for albino)

Just wondering if you are trying to feed it a F/T or live. I have an 05 male hognose that has just started eating from fasting for about 3 months. I was able to force feed it a couple pinkie heads during its period of refusing to eat. They were F/T pinkies. I recently tried a live pinkie and he had ate it within 5 minutes. You say your husbandry is okay, but do you house them together? Yours may be getting stressed out from the other hogs if so. What about light? Hognoses are diurnal snake and they should be fed in light and not in the dark as they are not active in the dark. Have you tried scenting with a frog or tuna water? This also works sometimes.

Just thought I would list some things that you might have overlooked. Hope this helps.

If she has good weight on her I wouldn't get worried. If shes a year old you should be able to force feed her a f/t large pink with little effort. Gently rub the f/t pinky on the sides of her mouth untill she opens and then stick the head in and keep pushing gently and lay her back in the cage. If she spits it back out you might have to hold her mouth closed for a minute and work the pink down a little. I would try lots of feeding methods though before resorting to force feeding,even f/t toads. Good Luck! Kevin