Greetings,
I have recently acquired a pair of neonate Western Hognose snakes. They were both feeding on live prey when I purchased them and I have had no problem getting the female to eat f/t prey. However, the male has been holding out on me and I tried a live mouse tonite to see if he was uninterested for other reasons and he ate it, after a great deal of hissing and hooding at it. My question: how do people successfully switch from live to f/t? Is it just a matter of whether or not the snake "decides" to take an f/t mouse or are there ways that we, the keeper, can convert the animal?
I have always had animals that would feed on f/t from the very beginning (fortunate I guess) so I have never really encountered this.
Thanks for any and all suggestions.
Cheers
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Switching to f/t prey question?
Replies (2)
The best way of switching for me is to take a live prey item and tease it with it until it starts chasing alot then switch to the f/t. All it is doing is tricking them. Or you can just put it in a deli cup with the prey item and leave it alone for a while. Eventually u should get it. It may take some weeks months possibly a year to get it to going good. Probably just a few weeks. I have only had 2 hognoses. The 1st i only fed frogs from my stupididty and the one I got on saturday which eats great. All that above is what works with my other snakes. It hsould work with a hognose too.
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Justin
Ryan, braining is often quite effective for hogs that do eat mice.
Try thawing out the pinky, then opening the brain and spreading the contents
onto the snout. This technique is effective with many species of snakes
that are a bit stubborn
