Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had my adult western hognose for over a year. When he first got here he would eat fuzzy's. However, after a few months he went on a hunger strike and would refuse every offer. Then the bugger escaped and was lost for about two months. When I found him he still wouldn't eat. I cooled him down this past winter hoping that would increase his appetite. Nope, didn't work. He really does like those anoles. He dosen't hesitate and opens that mouth and chases and catches the anole and swallows it backward or forward, he doesn't care. Will he ever eat mice again? I'm afraid he is ruined for mice. Will he be healthy eating anoles?

as long as the anoles are CBB then you should be fine. However when he is an adult you will probably be feeding like 3 or 4 anoles at a time.

Try keeping an anole and getting pinks (I would assume they would be eassiest to scent because they are smaller) and scenting them. Or try a thing called lizard maker on a mouse to scent it.
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose

Feeding anoles to your hognose just increases its parasite burden.

Hogs go off food and sometimes have to be tricked back onto it. It requires patience, but they will start feeding on rodents again.

Sounds like it is time for you to start anole scenting some fuzzies.
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Chris Harrison

I've read about scenting but unsure how it is done. BTW my Western Hognose is an adult male. He is 18inches in length. I need instructions on how to do the scenting, please. Does the anole lose it's life in the process?

I know with toads you can rub the pinkie all over the toad's body and let the toad bite the pinkie, getting its saliva on it. Not sure if this would work as well for anoles but the suggestion about getting yourself a toad and keeping it as a pet who does double duty by scenting pinks is a good one. People have also posted about liquifying their chosen scenting animal and dipping the pinkie in the juice, but, I don't know, that wouldn't be for me. Also if you tough it out the snake will eventually eat mice and the less you do to 'trick' it into eating them, the better and more consistently the snake should feed on unscented. I would say that once a hog goes to unscented, never let it go back. It'll eat eventually....snakes take a long time to starve and they aren't too dumb to eventually take the food. (most of the time anyway)
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Sue Barnett
1.0 Florida King (Vega)
0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
0.1 Egyptian spiny mouse (Mia)
4.2 mini rex rabbits (Basil, Pippin, Reggie, Hayden, Jackie and Peek-a-boo)
0.1 Plott hound (Molly)
1.0 half Arab (Zarr)
1.0 Betta (Flash)

although im still an ameteur hog keeper...ive read much and im pretty sure scenting of an anole can be done by simply rubbing the fuzzy/pinky by the the vent of the lizard...or if ur anole has recently shed or pieces of shed lying around...take the shed and wet it...and stick it onto the fuzzy/pinky forehead...also..i don't know if anyone has suggested this...but have an anole on forceps...well...i would think a dead anole...and as the typical hunting response...*or so i have read*...hogs lunge at their prey...quickly, right before the hog is about to lunge...place the fuzzy in front of it and sometimes u'll get the hog to cling on to the fuzzy and feeding response takes over...another way ive HEARD...was that let the hog have the anole...right before the whole anole is gone...feed it a fuzzy when its mouth is open...so its like continually feeding....so as it swallows the anole put the mouse in his mouth...and i think that usually feeding responses take over and they'll eat the fuzzy...did u try live or f/t or prekilled?...cuz some only take live while others only take dead...if all fails...refer to this list...as the the person has written...it is in no particular order...heres the link to the list... http://forum.kingsnake.com/hognose/messages/5710.html ....hope ur snake starts feeding!!

They are not native to the US.

The only problem with feeding Anoles is parasites, just freeze them about 3 weeks before you actually use them, and this will help cut down on parasites, but not eliminate them all.

It's not hard to scent the rodents with anole, and get them to accept rodents that way either.

Chad

This is certainly a sensitive subject for me personally, as some of the forum longtimeers will know from my many "discussions" about amphibian feeders. I do think it is cruel to use live feeders (of course this is limited to vertebrates), and I am currently maintaining an inventory of 180 reptiles and amphibians without using any live feeders including not sacrificing a single amphibian to switch Easterns over to mice (although I rarely need to do this because I refuse wild caught adults and the ones I do have are thriving for more than 10 years on an exclusive mouse diet). If it was not unnecessary I would not have a problem with it.

One problem is that the feeder does not get a humane death, instead it has to endure being captured, transported, pursued by the snake, captured again and swallowed alive (imagine how those fangs feel!). Unfortunately there are not too many options for a humane death for a feeder that will not be contaminated with chemicals. Most people are not willing to go the extra mile to euthanize a feeder with CO2 gas (and I'm not even sure of its effectiveness on amphibians).

My priorities are simple, wild animals before captive animals. I thoroughly disagree with removing animals from the wild just to feed a captive snake that in all likely this will have absolutely no benefit to any wild animal directly. I have made the case over a dozen times on this forum about how most people's tendencies actually select for smaller toads and ultimately an amphibian population that is less fit. If it were absolutely necessary to use a toad or an anole, ideally you would use one that is non-native such as the Brown anoles suggested by bachman. And again, I have been made the case for using a live toad as a set a source for hognoses. Toads are one of the easiest captive amphibians to maintain, and one can be kept quite comfortably in a 10 gallon and be used as a fresh source for scenting. My ulterior motive for this method is to create awareness for amphibians and their decline since one of the benefits of keeping wild animals as pets is to make the owner more sympathetic to their problems in the wild since they will relate their captive animals to wild ones.

This post certainly should answer your question for you, but give you a direction of where to go from here. I can assure you, a hognoses will eventually take a mouse before it ultimately starves to death. It has never been reported on this forum that a healthy hognose would not accept mice as food, but would accept all others, and starved because it simply would not accept a mouse as a food item. Find your self a toad, do some research on its captive husbandry, and I'm sure you'll barely have to use it for scenting once you get the hognose going!
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

wow...very insightful response...haha i think u had a typo tho....u said "My priorities are simple, wild animals before captive animals. I thoroughly disagree with removing animals from the wild just to feed a captive snake that in all likely this will have absolutely no benefit to any wild animal directly."...im sure u were thinking the other way around...captive bred before wild caught?....maybe u did mean it...iono...just checkigng...

No I said that correctly, but I think you are looking at it differently. In captivity, of course captive bred animals should be used above wild caught animals whenever possible. When it comes to animals in general, keeping wild animals in the wild and healthy should be a priority above Joe Somebody's pet snake.
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Wildlife dies without a sound, the only voice it has... is yours.

...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

I will heed your advice. And I am keeping your reply stored on my computer to read and reread. Obviously you know of what you speak and I am here to learn and do the best I can for my animals. Folks like you are the reason I come to these forums and I am always willing to listen to those with more experience. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comments, it certainly makes the many hours spent on these forums and all of the research I do in anticipation of questions, worth it.
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Wildlife dies without a sound, the only voice it has... is yours.

...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

Good reply to the message, but I feel there is no buisness a Brown Anole has in the US, and I wouldn't feel bad for any of them, as long as they were dispatched of properly. That being said, I know that people are the one's to blame for this, and not the animals, but Brown Anoles don't belong here, and I see no problems using them as a food source.

No pun intended (just my opinion),
Chad

One of the biggest threats to biological diversity, is introduced and invasive species. As Glades Herps puts it... Damn Cane Toads!
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Wildlife dies without a sound, the only voice it has... is yours.

...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

just out of curiosity, have you ever seen the Cane Toads video? not sure who it is produced by but it is rather humorous (I think...non-animal people just seem to think it is weird)
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Sue Barnett
1.0 Florida King (Vega)
0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
0.1 Egyptian spiny mouse (Mia)
4.2 mini rex rabbits (Basil, Pippin, Reggie, Hayden, Jackie and Peek-a-boo)
0.1 Plott hound (Molly)
1.0 half Arab (Zarr)
1.0 Betta (Flash)

I used a product called lizard maker with success. In fact, the only time i ever had luck was with a western hognose. I had been forcing mouse pieces for the first few months to keep weight on him, and when I used the lizard maker he dove right at it and ate. Maybe it will work for you. I rinse the frozen pinky off first to lessen the mouse smell.
Has anyone else had luck with lizard maker? I know my friend said it didn't work for his grey bands.
Harry

it worked for my Mole Kings and i think my Eastern Milk.

I have a little male Western that finally accepted thawed pinks after a long brumation and the first few months of being warmed up. I didn't give in - and he finally took a thawed pink dusted with vitamin powder. Go figure. He ate 5 in two days (but I have to leave them in with him so he can find them and eat on his own.)

I like the suggestion to scent with a live toad or anole, then keep the toad or anole as a pet or release it. One method is to put a live anole in a small jar for a day. Rotate it out with another anole for another day. Do this for a few days. Then thaw a pink, wash it and rub it in the jar bottom a little. Just this alone can work sometimes, with no harm to anoles. The jar without anoles will be effective for weeks after. But I truly think that Hogs for the most part are too glutonous to starve themselves to death. They'll eat, just maybe on their own time.

>>I have a little male Western that finally accepted thawed pinks after a long brumation and the first few months of being warmed up. I didn't give in - and he finally took a thawed pink dusted with vitamin powder. Go figure. He ate 5 in two days (but I have to leave them in with him so he can find them and eat on his own.)
>>
>>I like the suggestion to scent with a live toad or anole, then keep the toad or anole as a pet or release it. One method is to put a live anole in a small jar for a day. Rotate it out with another anole for another day. Do this for a few days. Then thaw a pink, wash it and rub it in the jar bottom a little. Just this alone can work sometimes, with no harm to anoles. The jar without anoles will be effective for weeks after. But I truly think that Hogs for the most part are too glutonous to starve themselves to death. They'll eat, just maybe on their own time.
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Wildlife dies without a sound, the only voice it has... is yours.

...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)