How much should an 8 inch hognose weigh? Worried my snake is underweight

[TheAwkwardTurtle]

My hoggie is around 7-8 inches and she weighs 10.1 grams. She's been a fussy eater. Didn't eat for the first three months after I had her. Now she will eat raw egg consistently and small pieces of canned salmon and sardines sometimes, but she still won't touch pinkies (I'm working on it though). Anyway lately I've been thinking that maybe she looks a bit thin? It's hard to tell though, especially because she puffs herself up when I'm looking at her sometimes. Her skin looks a bit loose on her when she turns certain ways and the place where her head meets her body looks a bit more angular than I think it should. Definitely can't see her spine though.

Is 10.1 grams for a 7-7 inch female hoggie underweight? She's accepting more and more food items and gaining weight steadily so hopefully even if she is underweight she will fill out soon.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

[rlditmars]

Honestly it doesn't really sound too terrible a weight for the size. Just remember a huge Hoggie might be 300+ grams. They are not like BP's.

Have you tried thawing the mouse pinks with another prey item that has fur? We had the same issue with a hoggie and when we started thawing the mouse pinks together with the rats for our other ball pythons, she slammed them. Now she is taking two pinks in a feeding without any fuss. I just lay them next to her and she eats them both. Can't guarantee it will work for you, but it's worth a try. Good luck

[TheAwkwardTurtle]

Thanks! I've tried pretty much every trick I've heard about feeding hoggies, but I hadn't heard that once yet. My girlfriend has a ball python so I'll try thawing a pinkie with one of her python's rats next time.

[piedlover79]

What is her habitat and environment like? Particularly in the winter when hognose want to bruminate they can be very difficult to feed.

You can also rub the pinkie with some fresh fish if she's liking fish to spread the flavor. I really worry about feeding her canned salmon and sardines these items tend to have enough sodium to be unhealthy for us humans let alone a reptile only weighing 10 grams. If she's really taken to fish you can but a small piece of something fresh from the supermarket (try to get wild caught and the least pink salmon you can find since pink farm raised salmon is actually died that colour since farm raised salmon is gray). ...although fish is not a natural prey item for a western hognose snake so try to make the switch to pinkie as quick as possible.

[rlditmars]

Adding to what piedlover79 said, try making certain her temps are nice and warm so it still feels like Summer temps for her. Also, you may have to provide artificial light, perhaps a UV bulb on a timer, as they are sensitive to the decreased amount of daylight hours. Set it so she has no less than 12 hours of light minimum up to maybe 14 hours.

Now if all of that doesn't work, I have heard of someone who kept a toad for the sole purpose of scenting food for their Hoggy. They would scent the prey item with the toads urine and the Hoggy would slam it. However, it would eat nothing else so they had a toad as a pet for as long as they had the Hoggy. It may be drastic but as a last ditch effort it may work. The difficulty may be procuring an American Toad in January unless your in one of the extreme southern or western states.