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I have a female W. Hognose that I picked up in Jan of last year as a hatchling. She's never really been a problem feeder. I switched her from live to f/t and she's been taken big fuzzies/ small hoppers in the past. She's about 20" long and not as big around as a big marker. She's more like a Sharpie really.

She was at 136g in Feb, but she hasn't eaten since then. She weighed 123g earlier this month, and I weighed her again a few minutes ago and she's still at 123g. So she's not losing weight, but still hasn't had food in a month.

Nothing has changed in her enclosure, she's got a warm spot in the mid to upper 90s and a cool spot that is upper 70s. Temps are taken with a IR temp gun. She has 2 hides and a water dish. On the cool side, the mulch is deep enough she can burrow if she wants to.

I thought she might go off feed a bit in the winter, but it is almost April. Should she start eating again soon? How long should this last?

Thanks!

A couple of things, first is humidity, room humidity can be really low this time of year, I know it adversely effects my hogs more then some other species.

And, did you try live, scenting, etc. Sometimes, they respond to other items, then return to normal. If your call it training to get one to take Ft mice, you may want to retrain it.

Lastly, temporarily going off food is not normally a problem. But only you can determine the future. If it continues and you try to adjust your husbandry and that fails, take your snake to a vet. One of the very most common problems with snakes is Flagellate protozoans, They are a stress related pathogen. and they without question effect feeding. If your animal had a stressful winter, then they can bloom and cause problems. Its an easy cure, take the stress away and have your snake treated. Hopefully your hog is already feeding and theres no problem.

Hmm, humidity. I'll look into that. I'm in north Florida, so humidity is usually not a problem, but it has been rather cool and dry this year.

The last meals she took were live. She had a refused a few times before in January, so I tossed in a couple of live fuzzies and she ate them 2 weeks running, then stopped again. That fast is the most recent one starting in late February . I've thought about scenting, but the toads come out when it rains, and it hasn't rained in a while. Next time it rains and we have toads, I may try scenting an item.

For western hognose snakes you can try lizards as well which, living in NW Florida myself, are relativity easy to get at a lot of parking lots that border woodlands so long as it is sunny enough outside to warm the cement. Westerns have a much broader natural diet than easterns and southerns so there are more options than toads. So luckily you won't have to wait until a rain to bring them out of their burrows if you don't want to.

Something to think about, I would still look at temps and humidity. As a person who has lived in many parts of the country and that includes the Ocala area in Fla. Humidiy can still be a problem. In fact is more of a problem because its unusual. Most of the year its not a problem, except in the winter. when room humidity is low. There is a real difference between room humidity and outside humidity. You heat the cage, which drys the cage out and you heat the room or house, which also drys the cages out. But because your in a normally humid area, they have ventilated cages with no problems with air exchange. Normally. Whats important, no matter where you live is, whats going on in the cage, at the time the "problem" occurs. Best wishes

I've been trying to keep the humidity up. I have a digital hygrometer for the apartment, that actually sits on the shelf above the hognose. It usually reads 40% even through the winter, and as high as 60% through the summer.

I've been misting the cage a bit to try and keep the humidity up. Still no luck on getting her to eat. She is very active during the day, I can tell because she's been moving her rocks all around and burrowing through her substrate.

I bought her in January of last year and didn't have feeding problems then, but she also was a baby, so perhaps her desire for food was a bit stronger.

I'm used to snakes not eating, my BP goes off feed through the winter, but she's like 1600g, so dropping a few grams doesn't bother me. But the hognose is so much smaller. I'm probably more worried than I need to be, but I always feel like a healthy snake should be eating. It took a while for the BP people to convince me that even healthy pythons don't always eat regularly.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I tried finding a toad tonight without any luck. The lizards suggestion is nice, but I work from about when I wake up until after dark most days and I haven't seen any easily caught lizards around. I may try live pinkies tomorrow if I can get home before the pet shop closes. They did not have any frogs/toads they could scent with.

For the lizards anoles can usually be found on horizontal branches at night, and I don't know if Mediterranean geckos are in your area or not, but they come out at night and like to hang out around lights on the sides of buildings to eat moths.

Also I have yet to try this with mine, as I haven't got around to dip-netting some fish yet, but according to Dan fish work as well. He noted that I should de-spine them first.

Good luck.

I tried scenting with a green tree frog and nothing.

I don't feel comfortable feeding wild caught if I can avoid it. Seems like a good way to introduce parasites and what not.

Update: Snake has been eating regularly for 2 weeks now. Just took down an 18g mouse - the largest she's ever had.