Cat,
I have found that young hogs can often be tricked into taking the "wrong" food item by getting them excited with the preferred food item. This often works with snakes that refuse pinks scented by the normal method.
It generally works like this....
1. find a small specimen of an acceptable food item. For a western hog, a frog or toad seems to work just fine.
2. Take that small food item and put it in a small container and rub it around the container to really get some scent in there.
3. Put the hog in the container for a few minutes. This will pique their attention.
4. The take the preferred food item and rub it on the head of a pinkie to get the pinkie scented.
5. Now the bait....take the preferred food item and dangle/twitch it in front of the snake slowly. Usually the little snakes will hiss once or twice but then start tongue flicking.
6. Once the snake starts approaching the food item, slowly move it away and let the snake follow. Some hogs will start chasing it around with their mouths open at this point.
7. Quickly substitute the prescented pinkie and don't move. If the snake is in chase mode, they will often simply grab it and start eating.
This doesn't work with all young hogs, but it is a good technique to try.
I have also had good luck "start feeding" baby hogs if they will play dead. I get a baby hog to play dead and the put the head of a pinkie in their mouths while they are dead. The trick is to get it back into the opening to their throat (which appears to be some sort of critical threshold). Then leave them completely alone while they "come to". It is better if you leave the room. Many times when they come around, they just swallow the pinkie rather than spit it out.
Be patient. I have a wild caught yearling male kennerlyi that I collected in May that just took his first pinkie last week. It was just a case of waiting for him to be hungry enough to try something new I guess?
-----
Chris Harrison
