Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Andy~ You mentioned a hognose in another post and I was wondering if you had any kind of information about them. Mainly... getting one to eat.

A Reptile shop that I work at had gotten one in. I don't know the ful story of weather someone had caught it and gave it to the owner... or if she had aquired it another way.

At any rate, she has had the snake for about 3 weeks now and the poor thing simply wont eat. She has tried fuzzies sented and unsented and she's even tried catching small toads and seeing if she will eat those. But so far... nothing.

Any suggestions?
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Heather
Dozer & ZeroCool

Well first off, this is the time of year when snakes start to go off feed, especially hognose. Cooling it might be smart, but if it is too small and doesn't have much weight, all you can do is offer food every few days and hope it takes it. Hognose can be sketchy feeders though, especially if WC. Some WC's refuse to eat even toads in captivity. That is the main reason not a lot of people deal with them (assuming we are talking about an eastern here). A good, but nasty, thing to do is cut the toad frog mouth to vent so make it smell more. Leaving my hogs that are picky eaters alone with a cut toad will often work. Once they are on toads, they aren't hard to get onto mice. Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

Thank you VERY much. I will pass the info onto my boss. Hopefully she will be able to get the little bugger to eat. I'd say it's about 8-12 inches and not looking thin yet. We are in Tampa FL so it isn't really cool here yet. Especially in the shop, it's usually around 80-85* and maybe 72-75 in the evenings. The hog is in a 10 gallon and still has LOTS of room. I'll tell her tomorrow to try cutting the toad and se if that works.

Thanks again!!!
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Heather
Dozer & ZeroCool

Make sure the toad has been humanely dispatched of first. Cutting open a live toad isn't exactly the kindest thing to do (sorry if that was already implied...Just wanted to clarify). Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

how exactly would that be done? I know about the Orajel thing but I'm assuming that wouldn't be a good idea if feeding it to the snake.
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Heather
Dozer & ZeroCool

C02 chambers made with dry ice aren't expensive or hard to make. Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

I had a picky wc eastern at one time and it refused to eat as well. I tried everything from pinkies to toads, but the only thing he would eat for the first couple of months was african clawed frogs. I was a little expensive, but after some time I was able to gradually offer him scented fuzzies. This is just my personal experience, just thought I'd throw it out there
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Randy