Normal hognose behavior?

I just got my very first hognose. She is an albino conda het snow. Up till now I’ve only owned ball pythons, and they just hide when they’re happy. The new hognose is just cruising around burrowing and stuff. Is this normal behavior? Or does a happy hognose hide a lot like a ball?


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Update: as soon as the lights went off. She curled up in the corner of her tank and seems to be asleep. I’m guessing the cruising around is normal behavior.


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I bet she is absolutely adorable can not wait for pictures good luck with the little cutie please share if she feeds well I saw a guy buy frog sausages for his? Good luck and happy holidays :P

Hognose are definitely more active than BPs, especially during the day since they are a diurnal species.

Here are some pictures I took of her today.

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I also took this one. Could someone confirm or deny I got a female?
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Hognoses are diurnal so they are active during the day. The cruising, burrowing or pushing bedding around is normal for them. As for the picture, it's a bit hard to tell with the background but it does appear to be a female. Deb is our resident hognose expert and will probably stop in at some point.

I read its harder to tell on smaller snakes. She is only 9g right now. Hopefully I can get her to eat in the next few days! Ive heard the females are great eaters, I still get nervous about the first feed with all snakes tho.

Oh she's beautiful! I wish we could have Hogs here :(

Hognose are day and night compare to BP, they will cruise around during the day, as for hiding they will usually prefer to bury themselves versus hiding under a hide which is why it is important to provide a sufficient layer of substrate between 1 to 2 inches depending on the hognose’s size.

As far as sexing yes it’s a bit tricky when they are smaller and sometime being able to compare to siblings helps simply because some female appear with thinner and longer tails than usual at 20/25 grams however there is no longer any doubts.

I would say female for yours but I would like to see a picture again when she is 20/25 grams, I am a bit on the fence on that one (could be the picture angle) for comparison here is a 9 grams female I held back this year (a bit of a difference but as explain previously sometime they can be tricky)

http://i68.tinypic.com/e7j8ms.jpg

As far as feeding and if she was well started and you are providing the proper husbandry (temp, enclosure size etc) it should not be any issue. People often have issues because the animal was not well started and or still on scented and IMO they should be on unscented and have ate F/T at least 10 times before being made available.

Enclosure wise I usually recommend nothing bigger than a 14 x 7 foot print until they are at least 50 grams.

Remember that unlike BP they have a high metabolism and because their prey is meaningless nutrition wise feeding every 3 to 4 days will be essential at first and advisable until they are at least 25 grams at which time you can feed every 5 days. If fed right our snake should be able to reach 75 to 100 grams within it’s first year.

I currently have her in a 20g terrarium. 2 mini RBI hides and about 1.5in of aspen chips. ambient is around 75F and she has a hot spot around 90F. She refused food last night. Not sure if it was just too soon for her, or if she isnt liking the massive tank. One thing I feel like im struggling with is lighting. I could put her in a tiny tub in my VE-6 rack with my BPs, but the rack is always dark. I guess I will just have to get her her own tub for now. I will take another tail picture when she gets larger. Thanks for the replies!

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Originally Posted by MmmBanana

I currently have her in a 20g terrarium. 2 mini RBI hides and about 1.5in of aspen chips. ambient is around 75F and she has a hot spot around 90F. She refused food last night. Not sure if it was just too soon for her, or if she isnt liking the massive tank. One thing I feel like im struggling with is lighting. I could put her in a tiny tub in my VE-6 rack with my BPs, but the rack is always dark. I guess I will just have to get her her own tub for now. I will take another tail picture when she gets larger. Thanks for the replies!

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20 gallons for a 9 grams hognose is absolutely way too big, even a 6 quarts tub at that size is huge for them, so downsize is definitely in order.

Another thing to keep in mind is young hognose under 20 grams are not very good at taking the prey of the tongs, in my experience they do much better if you leave the prey on the tub floor.

Here is what I do with my hatchlings, I thaw their prey, push the bedding to leave an area without bedding, place the prey in the middle and usually the prey is gone by the morning.

I start tong feeding when they are 20 grams at which time they seem less skittish around the snake tongs.

I went out and got her a 12qt tub before seeing that reply =/. I hope the 12qt will be ok for her. I gave her a ton of sub straight for her to burrow through.

I found out she hates the tongs the hard way. As soon as they got close to her she puffed up and started hissing. So I just left the pinky in with her to see if she would eat later. She never did.

Now that I put her in the smaller tub, how long should I wait before offering food again? I know they say wait a week with BPs, but I know hognoses have faster metabolisms, so I wasn’t sure if you could offer sooner.


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You offered twice in 24 hours that and too big of an enclosure, switching of the enclosure is a lot and I am not surprise she did not eat today either. Put her in something smaller 6 quarts max and wait for 5 to 7 days and next time leave the prey overnight and in the mean time no handling.

I would also recommend to raise the temp on the cool side to 80, young ones like it hot.

If at that time she still does not eat you can go even smaller with a 2.7 quarts tub https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite...lear/113216537 that's really a great size for an hatchling that size and until it reaches 20 grams.

If again she fail to eat you will keep the same setup however you will start scenting the prey, I know it's a step backward however at 9 grams you do not have much wiggle room and need to have her eating for you within the next few week.

Thanks to Deborah I was able to get my hognose eating after making a few adjustments. He was supposedly about a year old when he came to me and had eaten once in the past 6 months. Thanks to following Deborah's advice to a T he is now over 50 grams after coming to me at the end of March weighing only 11 grams.
You're in good hands with Deborah. Follow her advice and you'll have a happy, healthy hognose 😀

When I was out looking for a tub I saw the little 2.7qt tubs and the next size up was 12. So I ended up with the 12. I was thinking the 2.7 would be too small so I got the 12. Should I go back out and look for a 6 somewhere else, or do you think the 12qt is worth a shot. I gave her about 3in of aspen to burrow in. I got the temp up to around 80F.

So, I actually remembered that I have a 2.7qt tub. I use to put my baby bp in it while I clean his cage. So I took Mango out of the 12qt tub and got her setup in the 2.7qt tub. No more moving her or touching her for a week.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1a104599a7.jpg


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Originally Posted by MmmBanana

So, I actually remembered that I have a 2.7qt tub. I use to put my baby bp in it while I clean his cage. So I took Mango out of the 12qt tub and got her setup in the 2.7qt tub. No more moving her or touching her for a week.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1a104599a7.jpg


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Perfect! :gj:

I have left a pinky in Mango's tub a few days ago, and she still didn't eat. At what point do I start attempting scenting?

Considering the size you need to start now,

here is what I would try in order again 3 to 5 days between attempts.

Hard boiled eggs (you can even offer her pieces of hard boiled eggs and see if she take them)

Tuna

Vienna Sausage

Chicken

Anchovies

Salmon

Toad

Thank you so much for the help Deborah! How do I scent with a hard boiled egg? Just rub the pinky on it? Lol sorry, it seems like such an awkward question.

Also, is there a best time of day to feed a hognose? Should I wait till she is out and about and active to offer her food?

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Originally Posted by MmmBanana

Thank you so much for the help Deborah! How do I scent with a hard boiled egg? Just rub the pinky on it? Lol sorry, it seems like such an awkward question.

Also, is there a best time of day to feed a hognose? Should I wait till she is out and about and active to offer her food?

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There is no best time but I tend to feed in the evening so I can leave the prey overnight and retrieve in the AM.

When I use hard boiled egg I just crush it put it in a baggy and put the mouse in it make sure it rubbed and sometime coated. I usually keep it in the freezer after that so I can reuse it instead of boiling an egg every week.

Same things with other scents, I keep those juices in little jars in my freezer.

No luck with egg or tuna scenting. Next up is vienna sausages.

I broke down and ordered reptilinks for her Incase she keeps refusing.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by MmmBanana

I broke down and ordered reptilinks for her Incase she keeps refusing.


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She may or may not take it, who knows, if everything has failed and this fails too your next option is mix scents and then assist feed mice tails, which is not easy but sometimes needs to be done.

Do you have any advice/directions on how to assist feed a hognose? Same as a BP? Just GENTLY get the meal item in their mouth till they get their teeth into it, and then hope they go from there?

I understand she might turn down the reptilinks, I just figured it was worth a shot at this point.

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Originally Posted by MmmBanana

Do you have any advice/directions on how to assist feed a hognose? Same as a BP? Just GENTLY get the meal item in their mouth till they get their teeth into it, and then hope they go from there?

I understand she might turn down the reptilinks, I just figured it was worth a shot at this point.

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Assisting is definitely a little trickier with hognose with BP you use the head of the mouse and place your finger a certain way to help open the mouth in this case you need to use the end of the mouse tail and push it to try to open the mouth which is not easy since it's not Regis, not an easy task definitely will require a little more time.

Have you consulted with the breeder who sold you the animal?

We did contact her breeder. He never got back to us. Seems like he may be a questionable guy. But anyways...... after almost 2 months of just leaving her be and offering her food once a week, she finally ate! She ate 3 micro reptilinks last Wednesday. I hope this means she will begin eating regularly for us now. Fingers crossed!

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Originally Posted by MmmBanana

We did contact her breeder. He never got back to us. Seems like he may be a questionable guy. But anyways...... after almost 2 months of just leaving her be and offering her food once a week, she finally ate! She ate 3 micro reptilinks last Wednesday. I hope this means she will begin eating regularly for us now. Fingers crossed!

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Sorry to hear the breeder is no help, but glad she is eating, sometimes they do need the time once they transition, now the next step will likely be for you to actually use one of those link to start scenting her preys.

I would still give her a few feeding with those, and then use once to scent a pinky (leave it overnight) and see what happen, if nothing happen do not offer any food, wait 5 days offer another scented pinky overnight, if that one is uneaten then offer a link and repeat the process until she take scented and then same process when you do unscented.

I actually ordered a small bottle of frog juice from reptilinks. I was counting on having to scent to get her back onto rodents after feeding her frog sausage.