Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I just got a little baby western, about 3 weeks ago. I got her from a show, and the breeder i got her from had a bunch of babies, and two of them have already eaten their first meal, a live pinky. so i bought the female that had already eaten before. well, its been about three weeks now and ive tried many times, but i cant get her to eat her pinky! i have been doing live, i did try frozen one night but to no avail, and she just wont eat. i even put her in a paper bag overnight a few times and she still doesnt want to eat it. any tips or thoughts? Thanks
-----
~Melissa~
1.2.3 Leopard geckos
1.1 Bearded dragons
1.0 Hog Island Boa
0.1 Western hognose
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Savannah Monitor
1.1 Ferrets
0.1 Chinchilla
1.0 dwarf hamster

1.0 Psycho cat

Melissas Menagerie

>>Hi,
>>
>>I just got a little baby western, about 3 weeks ago. I got her from a show, and the breeder i got her from had a bunch of babies, and two of them have already eaten their first meal, a live pinky. so i bought the female that had already eaten before. well, its been about three weeks now and ive tried many times, but i cant get her to eat her pinky! i have been doing live, i did try frozen one night but to no avail, and she just wont eat. i even put her in a paper bag overnight a few times and she still doesnt want to eat it. any tips or thoughts? Thanks

Something I learned starting a clutch of 15 Children's Pythons this year is that if the baby feels safe it is more likely to eat. They are notorious lizard eaters and I thought I would have to go to scenting....but worse thing I had to do was brain a few of the pinkies if the live was refused.
What I did was put about an inch and a half 'fluffed' layer of Carefresh (small animal bedding) in each baby's tub. Then I put in a 4X6 file card laying on top and set the jar lid water dish on that. Then I left them like that for a week. Then I offered live pinkys, at nightfall, right before lights out. Many ate first thing. I would hazard a guess that this might work with Hognose too, as mine love to burrow in. I like the Carefresh as it is light, recycled paper and not an impaction risk that some other substrates can be. This is how I am working at starting any of my babies in future and worth a try in my book.
Another thing I noticed starting my hognose last year, as babies, was that they seemed more keen on washed pinks or even frozen thawed pinks over 'fresh', mousey smelling ones.
-----
Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

My little male Western Hognose was in an aquarium in my office for several months. He would disappear for days/weeks and I wouldn't see him. When I would dig him out or look for him to offer feed he would just look disgusted and turn away. We played this game for a good while. I decided then that I would remove him from his tank and placed him in a sweater box in my rack in the snake house. Well, you'd never know that this was the same snake. He can't wait until I get to him to feed. No more hiding or disgust. He seems to love the plastic sweaterbox and black rack. I'm enjoying him again and he seems so much more content. I was hoping to sell him but now I'm changing my mind. I believe he didn't like that glass tank even though it was beautiful to look at, decorated and all. Actually, I think that humidity may play a role in his feeding response as the plastic box would definitely hold more humidity. Anyone have a comment on humidity?

Are you sure shes a she?

Persistance is key!!!!

If its too long without eating youll have to employ scenting!!

With my girl, she would only bite the head off of lives(weird eh?) and has taken a frozen every siongle time I offered.

I had bought her sister, Little one, who had supposedly been eating. She was real finicky for me and was always sluggish and mysteriously died about a week after the purchase. I went back and got a refund and bought a sibling ( My current Hoggy, Piggy) and she has been an amazing eater and way more active as well.
-----
1.0 Indonesian Blue Tongue Skink (Don)
0.1 Irian Jaya Blue Tongue Skink (Sausage Girl)
0.0.1 Tanimbar Island Blue Tongue Skink ( Spunky Sebastian)
1.0.1 Green Tree Pythons ( Male=Floyd, Baby= Verdi)
0.1 Western Hognose (Piggy)
0.0.1 Egyptian Tortiose(Tank)
0.0.1 Sonoran Gopher snake ( Toro)
0.1 Albino Leo gecko (Sasha)
1.1 African Greys (Timmy and sis)
1.0 White bellied Caique (Diego)
0.1 Goffin's Cockatoo ( Sydney)
3.1 Ferrets (Chase, Angel, Max, and King)
1.0 Greater Swiss Mountain Dog (Moose)

Sounds like you are trying to hard. Try just setting the pinkie in the snakes hide box or werever he hides out most of the time.
The snake may just be scared because of to much moving around. The paper bag method is not my favorite because some more easily spooked specimens won't eat when moved around so much.
Jeremiah's Reptile Garden

-----
0.1.0 Sonoran Gophersnake

I am starting to realize this is becoming the number one problem for Hognose owners. The number of questions concerning newly purchased hognoses not eating has been a reoccurring theme. Some of the things that has been emphasized is that hognoses rarely let themselves starve to death. I have always recommended having a digital scale available to take weekly weights on problematic animals. The fact that it is not eating is not of any great concern, it is when anorexia is accompanied by weight loss is when it becomes a serious issue. I recommend offering food once a week, there's no sense in pressuring it any more. Also if you can find any toads to use as a scent source (keep them alive in a 10 gallon as a pet), you should be able to get it feeding within a month.
-----
...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)

The best thing to do is keep track of its weight. Even as babies, they can go off feed for weeks at a time. It also seems, from my personal experience, that they tend to refuse food more often around this time of year. My first hognose, a male, went off feed for 6 weeks when he was less than 3 months old. I got him started by toad scenting a pinkie and after that he has been a great feeder of unscented f/ts. As long as she's not losing too much weight, just be patient.

Good luck,
Jim

-----
2.3 Western Hognose Snakes
1.1 Eastern Hognose Snakes
1.0 Malagasy Speckled Hognose Snake
1.0 Texas Longnose Snake
2.2 Bearded Dragons
0.1 Green Iguana
0.1 Cat
0.1 Dog
1.0 Rat
0.0.1 Baby (expecting)

you don't even have to go into the archives to find numerous posts with titles like 'new hog owner', 'feeding problems', 'hog off feed' etc with their appropriate answers and allll the same suggestions you will get here. All the answers are there. If people keep asking these same questions (which would suggest they need to do some more homework), people are going to stop answering because they've already answered it a dozen times! I am not trying to be mean but I've seen this in other forums. When I was looking into getting my hog I read all the posts for several pages back on this forum, and it gave me a good idea of do's and don'ts and what to expect. Check them out, you can learn a lot, and realize that other people go through this too and their hogs come out just fine in most cases.

np
-----
Andy Maddox
AIM: thekingofproduct
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

"A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika. Nothin' proper about ya propaganda. Fools follow rules when the set commands ya. Said it was blue when ya blood was red. That's how ya got a bullet blasted through ya head"- Rage Against the Machine

I'll give you guys a little sneak preview... hopefully in the not-too-distant future there will be a website about hognoses that will serve as a repository for commonly asked questions. That way all we have to do is copy and paste the URL into the message.

Thanks for reminding new forum members that it isn't fair if they ask questions without doing the research first. Unfortunately, kingsnake's search function is practically unuseable for specific information.
-----
...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)

But why can't this forum have a thread "tacked" to the top of the first page for all to see? It could be titled "everything you ever wanted to know about hognose eating habits."

>>I'll give you guys a little sneak preview... hopefully in the not-too-distant future there will be a website about hognoses that will serve as a repository for commonly asked questions. That way all we have to do is copy and paste the URL into the message.
>>
>>Thanks for reminding new forum members that it isn't fair if they ask questions without doing the research first. Unfortunately, kingsnake's search function is practically unuseable for specific information.
>>-----
>>...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)
-----
James

but it's very easy to scroll down the page or go back several pages... anyway I like the idea of a comprehensive 'guide' to the hognose basics, it would be great if new people to the board could find it easily....(and when I say this I think of those funny sad-but-true e-mail forwards about people who call Dell because they can't find the 'ANY' key on their computer, and the like....not assuming anyone who comes here is dumb but you can never make things too clear)

I understand questions about feeding have been asked dozens of times, and i did read the archives (and yes, the new search feature is terrible.). I was mainly asking what to do if she has already eaten a live unscented pinky before, which is why i got her instead of any others the breeder had, and now doesnt want to eat one at all. is that common? Guess i will try scenting it, since I have a toad, and see what happens there.
-----
~Melissa~
1.2.3 Leopard geckos
1.1 Bearded dragons
1.0 Hog Island Boa
0.1 Western hognose
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Savannah Monitor
1.1 Ferrets
0.1 Chinchilla
1.0 dwarf hamster

1.0 Psycho cat

Melissas Menagerie

many hogs don't eat on a regular schedule...but if they've been eating F/T no reason to mess that up by scenting...all those scenting tricks are for hogs that people have serious concerns about, like when they havent eaten for 3 months or aren't started on pinkies yet.... if your hog skips a feeding or 2 there is no need to be concerned. For example, mine gets fed fridays. I thaw one at a time so as not to watse many if she decides she isn't hungry. if she eats, I keep thawing one more at a time until she stops (usually 3). if she doesn't, I'll leave her for about half an hour but after that, well, she will just have to wait. I usually try again sunday, and if she still refuses, wait til the next friday. If she's shedding sometimes she won't eat for 2 weeks before, and I just had her go 3, then she happily ate 3 pinkies. so....don't stress too much and if you haven't scented, don't start. it just means you may have to wean yours off scented again at a later date, which you don't want to have to deal with
-----
Sue Barnett

0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
1.0 Crested gecko (Gator)
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)
0.1 'found in someone's garage' kitten (Terra)

1.0 Betta (Flash) and 1.0 FL kingsnake (Vega) currently living with 1.0 boyfriend (Ethan)