Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here is the situation... There are a few people on a UK forum that seem to think I am power feeding my hognose... Here is the deal...

I currently have a 14 to 15 inch juvinile hog... She is a big eater... I feed her every three days... She will take 2 to 3 hoppers per feeding or 4 to 6 day old pinkies depending on what I have at the time...

Is this considered power feeding or am I giving my hog what she needs to grow at a good rate and stay healthy...

Remember, this is a juvinile hog that is still growing fast and metabolizing her intake quickly, not a slow growing adult...

That is power feeding yet that is how a bunch of people feed hogs there first year especialy females.
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Archie Bottoms

i would consider it power feeding but hogs seem to be able to eat large amount in short periods in the wild when food is abundant. so if she's metabolizing and growing i wouldnt worry about it, maybe every few weeks give her a break as a precaution. my two cents only!

Thanks for the input so far...

My next question is, if hogs naturally take in large quantities of prey when it is abundant in the wild, is it really considered power feeding??? I mean I have heard that hogs feed every day to every other day when food is available... So is giving them a steady diet un-natural???

Thanks again everyone..

Maybe I am wrong, but I don't think that is powerfeeding. My understanding of powerfeeding is, as a snake is about to finish eating one mouse (or whatever) you manually place another mouse in the snakes mouth, so that he continues eating as if it were one mouse. Allowing the snake to eat several items at one feeding ON IS OWN is NOT powerfeeding. And yes, hogs do it in the wild all the time. If a hog finds a nest of pinkie mice in the wild, do you really think he would limit himself to one pinkie? I think not.

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Greg Jackson

i totaly agree with you they would eat as many as they could pack in but in captivity several meals every three days can be seen by some as excessive. i'm not saying i dont feed them on a similar schedule but i also periodicly give them a week off as a mini fast. not saying anyones wrong thats just what i do.

Thanks Mike... Awesome hogs by the way!!!

Not all of my hogs eat that way... This girl is just constantly looking to eat... She would eat more if I fed it to her... She is a real fast grower...

It got her from Brent... Maybe he can attest to how much of a feeder and a grower she is... He actually told be she was a fast grower when I got her... She is an awesome hog all around... Real sweet too unless she is hungry... LOL

Some of my Juvies eat the same way, Gregg-especially females. It's fine as long as you slow it down once they reach breeding size-even a slightly overweight female may fail to breed, IME....

Males-feed them a LOT whenever they will eat, for they will probably fail to eat much of the time.
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Brad, thanks for the input!!! The hogs I got from you are feeding varatiously as well... Dont know what took me so long to get back into hogs... LOL