Hog won't eat :/

I'm a BP girl, but I absolutely love hogs, so I had to get one! She's my little odd man out. I've had my hoggie for about two months now and she's a tough little girl to feed. She's eaten once for me and only when I left the f/t mouse in there and walked away. I've done the same ever since, but still no luck. She's 16g and a feisty little girl :P. I don't have any toads in my area that I could catch and use to scent, but someone has suggested trying to scent the mouse with tuna. I guess that will be my next try. According to the breeder, she was eating f/t mice with him no problem, but I'm not so sure I trust that she was a perfect eater for him.

Any suggestions are appreciated!! (She's still nameless, so I'd take suggestions for that as well haha)

And of course, because we all love pictures, here she is...she's impossibly fast, so these are awful pictures.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3712/9...b0949dc61d.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7441/9...e03187b556.jpg

Have you tried feeding her in a deli cup outside of the cage withe just her and the pink / fuzzy? Have you tried slightly smaller prey items / slightly larger ones? I have some hogs that will be that picky. Once they have transitioned from scented prey, its quite odd for them to want to go back to it THAT abruptly! Next thing you can try is placing the hog in a very small brown paper bag with the f/t prey item. Put a paper clip on top of the bag place it back in the enclusre. Leave her like this for 2 hours, come back and see if it's gone.

Make sure you have enough hides for her, as well as slightly deep substrate to burrow, some dig, some dont. Male hogs will go off feed quite a lot , maybe once every couple of months, and then completely off during the winter for brumation. Females though, I only have one female that will go off feed for any period of time, and even that was when she hit about 60 grams and decided she liked that particular look for herself for a couple months ;-), she's 220 grams now though and feeds like clockwork. Yours will get there!

What are her temps? My understanding is that they will not eat if they are too cool. And I second the post above me.

I've tried feeding her outside her enclosure with both f/t and live prey and she spent the entire time ignoring the prey and trying to escape. At that point, I switched out her substrate and put her on paper towels so I could feed her in the enclosure without worrying about her ingesting the substrate. Perhaps I should put her substrate back in (she loved burrowing) and continue trying to feed outside her enclosure?

She has two hides at the moment on both the warm and cool sides and I was planning on putting some leaves in there as well to crowd things up further. Her warm spot is at a toasty 92 degrees, cool spot is 80 degrees.

I would give her back her bedding. Put her and the pinkie in a small opaque deli cup, and back in her cage for at least a few hours. No peeking!

My male hog is a pain to feed. Pretty much have to convince him. He puffs up and hisses if it touches him. I have had the most luck pinching the skin behind the rat pup's neck and putting it in his path. That way he "comes across it on his own" which he seems to prefer. He will eat but only if he happens to cross paths with it, he doesn't want hand outs lol I have him on paper towels right now and it doesn't seem to bother him.

No worries with injestion. My oldest hog has always been fed in his enclosure, and has eaten his share of aspen by accident ;-)

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

I would give her back her bedding. Put her and the pinkie in a small opaque deli cup, and back in her cage for at least a few hours. No peeking!

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I will definitely give that a try. I felt so bad taking out her substrate, but she hated being moved to a new place to feed, so I chose the lesser of the two evils. I'll give that a shot though! Thank youu!

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Originally Posted by M&H

My male hog is a pain to feed. Pretty much have to convince him. He puffs up and hisses if it touches him. I have had the most luck pinching the skin behind the rat pup's neck and putting it in his path. That way he "comes across it on his own" which he seems to prefer. He will eat but only if he happens to cross paths with it, he doesn't want hand outs lol I have him on paper towels right now and it doesn't seem to bother him.

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I've tried putting it in her path too, but she's been just ignoring it. She would inspect it a few times before, but now I don't see any interest.

Thank you all for your continued suggestions!! :) Fingers crossed!

Here's what I've found to work back when my girl was being a turd:

Put her in a 6qt tub or the smallest container that can hold her and a pinkie. Put the hot pink in the middle of the tub, add snake, cover container with a dark cloth and put it back in the enclosure if it'll fit, or in a warm quiet room. I usually feed in the evening, and the next day the feeder is gone. Don't leave her in there for more than 8 hours or so. I only had to do that a few times, then she started chowing down the minute I tossed anything at her.

I would suggest trying live again, but as mentioned, get a deli cup. Just put the deli cup down in the substrate (I'd give it back, they like to dig.) and leave the pinky in there. Worse case scenario is you can put her in there with it and put a lid on it (with air holes obviously).

I've gotten hogs to eat just after getting them by offering a pinky while they are still in the deli cup.


Be careful though, now that you have an odd girl out. Soon you might find that you suddenly have more hogs than bp's. :D

Well, no luck with the warm mouse in a cup in her enclosure (substrate was re-added). I guess it's on to try live now :/

Say she starts eating the live - are these guys difficult to switch to f/t like many balls can be? The only place I can get live pinkies/fuzzies is an hour round trip for me, so I'd want to get her switched off as easily as possible once she's eaten live several times (assuming she'll even eat this time). She hates being picked up and disturbed, so I'll just put the open deli cup with the pinky in it and hope she finds it.

Thanks everyone...fingers crossed :/

I scent pinkies with tuna for picky eaters. I rub the pinky on the tuna or thaw them out with some of the tuna water. They never refuse the scented pinkies and usually start taking unscented pinks after a few feedings.

My sub-adult western hoggie, Wilbur finally got off his hunger strike after over a month. He finally ate a f/t small mouse last night. His last meal was on the 4th of July. I thawed out the mouse until it is room temp than hit it with a blow dryer for about ten seconds. I don't warm up his food as hot like I do for the bpz. Once I placed it in his enclosure, he went right after it. How is your little bugger doing?

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Originally Posted by Zuma22

Say she starts eating the live - are these guys difficult to switch to f/t like many balls can be?

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They do not compare and can be switch very easily.

Wow, now I'm feeling lucky! The idea of my hog being picky is so very, very foreign...she LUNGES up the side of her tank and grabs the mouse before I can even hand it to her. :rofl:

Not the same species, but when I feed my corn I rub the thawed mouse all over the bottom of the feeding tub, then place the snake in the scented tub, then hit the mouse with the hairdryer, open tub and place mouse in the middle. Got that tip from someone on here, I think. Worth a try!

Still no luck :/ the tuna-scented pinky didn't do a thing. She shows absolutely no interest in the thing. What the heck!? She loves having her substrate back, so that's good, but still no luck eating...the past few times, I've just been leaving it in there rather than using tongs and trying that whole bit - should I go back trying to get her to eat off tongs??

Part of the problem is that she flips out every time her tub is opened, so she's already riled up when I go to offer the mouse. She's a striking maniac lol - textbook bluffing hognose.

I just need to get her eating!

When you first tried the deli cup, was she enclosed in the cup, or did you cut a hole so she could come and go as pleased?

I tried it closed (only left her there for about 30 min) and then ever since I've tried it with the mouse in the deli cup and just putting the cup in her enclosure. I wanted her to find it herself since picking her up pisses her off.

You might wanna try the deli cup method again, but leave her overnight with the pink. My guy gets super pissy when you mess around his enclosure, but he starts chowing down when I put him in his feeding box.

I have been leaving it in overnight :/ with a towel covering the tub for extra security. I guess I'll keep trying!

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Originally Posted by Zuma22

I have been leaving it in overnight :/ with a towel covering the tub for extra security. I guess I'll keep trying!

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Oh I meant secure her in a deli cup with the pink overnight. Then cover and wait :)