Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I thought this was a nice find from last month. Found this young, adult, female Eastern Hognose in the Sandhills of North Carolina. I like the aberrant, checkered, zig-zag, zipper (or whatever-you-want-to-call-it) pattern on this one. She was quite skinny when I found her, but has since fattened up nicely with a power-fed diet! Thanks for looking

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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

Beautiful snake......love the pattern and colour.

Very nice Eastern Hognose Snake....when you say power feed...what is the diet? Just curious....the one animal I have is a strong feeder on mice.....and supposedly has been since she was hatched....how many of you working with this species get them to feed on mice? just curious...thanks, Gmerker

>>Very nice Eastern Hognose Snake....when you say power feed...what is the diet? Just curious....the one animal I have is a strong feeder on mice.....and supposedly has been since she was hatched....how many of you working with this species get them to feed on mice? just curious...thanks, Gmerker

Knowing that rodents are more fatty than amphibians, during the major growth period of young easterns, it's not really power feeding to feed them a lot as they are using that energy. Once they stop major growth and start filling out as adults, then it's best to cut back on the food to prevent obesity.

I have a 3 year old solid black female who is just short of being 3 feet in length now that has been feeding on mice or pinky/fuzzy rats her entire life (no scenting).

I have a 1 year old rosy/red male that I have been feeding mice to. He did require scenting on his pinkies (tuna fish water scent) to start off with. If there was no tuna smell he would ignore it.. put tuna on the same pink and he was all over it. After a few months he outgrew the need for scenting and is now eating fuzzy mice without a problem. Won't be much longer before he'll be able to take pinky rats. I'm hoping he reaches good size and weight to breed to the black female next spring.

I have another 1 year old male that flat out refuses to eat anything, scented or not. I have to force feed him. He's grown maybe like an inch in the past year whereas the other male is between 15-18 inches. I'm not too worried as he holding good weight and activity.. just wish he'd get over this little problem of his and start chowing down like a pig as the others do.

I had another female (sibling to the red male) that failed to thrive period. Once in a while she would eat on her own, but mostly needed force feeding. Ultimately she wasted away and died 6 months later.
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PHWyvern

Thanks
Yes, I have one that was found as a six inch hatchling last year that eats mice Exclusively - took pinkies without even scenting! Now he's 19" long already from a diet of mice!
But that one in the pic was just recently wildcaught and looked very skinny and weak. So for now I fed it a bunch of medium sized toads just to get her a little stronger. The transition from WC to captive always stresses animals for the first few days, so I gave her THE favorite meal to help make the transition a little easier. From here on out, I will be switching her to scented small mice and eventually all mice...

Zee
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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-