male hognose refusing to eat

Hey guys, befor I left for Reno on thursday, I offered my 3 hoggys pinkies. Only the 2 females ate while the male refused. Today I offered him food again and he still refused it. I tryed it with ALL the lights off to where it was pitch black. I left it in there for about 2 hours and still wouldnt eat. I weighed the all and heres the weights on them:
Male(non-eater)...... weighed at 10 g.
Female(sister)...... weighed at 12 g.
Female(alot older)........ weighed at 24 g.


Also, the male that has refused twice has still ate 2 other times befor he started refusing.

Check your husbandry on that individual, temp, humidity etc etc, that is usually the problem. Were they f/t or live? Good luck!

~mike

I fed them all f/t with the cage temps at 86 and humidity at 42%. I am picking up a live pinkie tomarrow just to give it a shot.

Also, remember these snakes know what the Baro pressure and such are.......with winter rolling in and other things going on........It is close enough to smell the females?

At 10 grams he could care less if he smells a female. Hognose are notorious for going on hunger strikes, one of the reasons I quit keeping them was because they were such a pain when they stopped eating. Keep monitoring his weight, unfortunatly at 10g their isn't a lot of wiggle room. Of course you can try all the little tricks; feeding him in a small container/brown bag, dipping the pinky in tuna fish juice, braining the pinky, etc....

I had one female that, at around 20 grams stopped eating, she didn't eat for three months before she started to lose weight, I tried everything, finally I was able to get a western plains toad at a reptile show, I kept the toad as a pet and would rub the pinky on the toad to scent it. That got her eating again and I eventually got her off of scented pinks and back on unscented.
Good Luck with him.

i was just about to post the same thing. i have an 05 male... he skipped one meal, at the next feeding, now he's skipped his last two. he's the only one in my collection refusing. i've had the snake for a year and its never skipped a meal... frustrating, but he seems healthy and is still active and pooping and everything like that. ive' tried feeding him in a deli cup, braining, and just leaving the pink at the door of his main hide.

size, age, so on..........doesnt matter if he smells other snakes that right there can cause any snake to not eat. Even more so for snakes that eat other reptiles and amphibians. Would you eat a cracker if you could smell a steak right next to you?

Well he is eating as I speak. I got him a live pinkie and that got him to right away.
Do you think that is caused by the live mouses smell? It seems like it would make sence that the live have alot stronger of a scent than the f/t.
Thanks for all the tips!

Good! Glad it ate for you!

Live sometimes is the only way for a while.......it happens......LOL

hmm, mine still wont eat... starting to worry, he's eaten one pinky in the last 6 weeks.
he doesnt seem to be losing weight, but i've tried everything except scenting... suggestions?

Wow, well im so sick of mine just decieding not to eat. Now its my male and my smallest female. My bigger femal would NEVER skip a meal it seems. The female that wont eat will not stop striking at me either. And when she does, shes not opening her mouth. And along with her bite is a loud hissing. So again, this is the first time my female refused and the 1st time for the male since the last feed but he did refuse 2 times befor that last one.

Have you tried feeding them live pinkies or a small fuzzie?

Yes they have lives in with them right now. They are way to small to take on a fuzzi.

Have you tried senting them? Are they each in their own little deli cup with the pink?

I havent scented them since they used to eat just great with out. And they are all fed in seperate deli cups.

my guy didnt eat again today... i've tried everything except toad scenting. i think i'm going to order a texas toad and keep my fingers crossed. this is so frustrating...

That sucks, Hopefully the toad scented works.
I was told that if I cant get them to eat, to cool them down for the winter and watch there weights then when it starts warming up to warm them up also. Should I do this if nothing else works?

My female seems to have slowed down a little at the moment - maybe it's "the time of year" - and she's normally a voracious eater. She decided to have her mouse a few days later than normal.

Well fed them tonight and the female that refused last time decieded she would eat. No luck with the male though. I have the pinkie siting infront of the males hide and when I went in to let the female out of the delie cup, he was peeking his head out and went back in. So maybe if I leave him alone he'll decied to eat.

yeah i asked around to some knowledgable people and they all said that since western hogs do hibernate in the wild you just have to either cool them down for a bit or you can fight it and keep trying to feed until they want to get back on it. october to december is the generally accepted fasting period.
maybe its because most of our hogs arent that many generations removed from the wild?

I hope you get him to eat soon

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kzooherpetoculturist

yeah i asked around to some knowledgable people and they all said that since western hogs do hibernate in the wild you just have to either cool them down for a bit or you can fight it and keep trying to feed until they want to get back on it. october to december is the generally accepted fasting period.
maybe its because most of our hogs arent that many generations removed from the wild?

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I'm going to try this now I think - my adult female is acting exactly the same way as PJFF's - she's been very jumpy last couple of days - and if I put my hand inside her viv she'll jump back and hiss - she even put her hood up and took up her cobra stance today :eek: . She's normally a very calm, docile snake.

I just hate the thought of brumation in case they don't wake up :( - but it's natural I guess. Should I just turn off all heating? Our room temp fluctuates between 68-70 overnight but hot end of viv will reach 85-90 during the day (because it's on top of another viv) plus it's a naturally warm room with sunlight anyway.

Well I got my small female to eat a few days ago and as I type, my male is eating!!!! :D Im very happy right now.

Question about brumateing...... when you do it, do you leave them alone as if they were in a burrow in the wild? i guess my main question is, are you able to check on them?

Congrats PJ FF!

Not sure about brumating, tho.

Mine's still not eating :( My sav is gonna get fat with all the extra mice!! She just isn't interested at all - she thinks the mouse is there to annoy her when I hold it in front of her - and will hiss and back away from it. I'm going to wait for 3 days now until Sav's next feeding day and offer her a smaller size mouse - she's nice and rounded and not thin so I try and persuade myself not to worry ... but hey! , that's my middle name when it comes to my critters :(

I too have noticed a fall in my hogs appetite she ate last week but the last month before that she didnt want to know, and she has refused today also.

As far as I have heard, I would start cooling her. But check on that as I have been having the same problem and am no where near being an expert.

Thanks :) I think I will start doing that - she has now not eaten for 2 weeks and has nice clean bedding as of yesterday so I'll just turn out her basking light and leave her heat mat on. What temp should she have at each end for brumating?

mine started eating after i raised the heat 5 degrees and misted the cage every other day. i stick fuzzies in his hid every week now and the next morning they're gone.

I was just re-reading this thread earlier today and comforted myself with your previous post about them fasting between October to December (still a way to go yet before panicking). My adult female still isnt eating (5 weeks now :( ) She's happy enough though, I got her out today to weigh her - she was 375g before she went on her "diet", now she's 365g (though doesn't look like she's lost any - but the extra before could have been poop inside her. She certainly isn't skinny. Well it's monitor feeding day tomorrow so I'll have another go at offering her a small mouse - wonder if she'd like quail ...

not to bring up an old thread but did your hog ever resume feeding?

No - not yet - must be about 8 weeks now ... she's bright enough though. it's monitor feeding day today so I'm going to defrost a small mouse and see if she fancies that - if not it'll go in the r-legged scaled garbage disposal unit.

My hoggy resumed feeding last week - I was soooo pleased!! She had a fuzzy and a pinky (all I had of the right size - bad mommy!)


Tried again yesterday with a small mouse and fuzzy and she didn't want to know .... little wotsit!! :( Maybe 7 days was too quick for her, I'm going to try again on the 10th day ... I've sure my monitor will have more than a vested interest in whether she feeds or not ...

i'm glad she got a meal in... i actually ended up putting a space heater in our herp room to make sure the ambient temps stayed up. i'm in michigan, its cold.

It's pretty cold (outside) here. I'm in the UK and we actually got some snow last week :D


Well she wasn't interested on about 10th day so am going to try her again tomorrow - standby alert to Sav Monitor - could be extras LOL!!!

it was -17 with the wind chill when i went to bed last nite! i'm really glad i put that extra insulation in the basement last fall...
good luck, i'm sure she'll get back to norm.