Normal hognose behavior?

[MmmBanana]

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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[MmmBanana]

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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[C.Marie]

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

[Craiga 01453]

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

[MmmBanana]

Here are some pictures I took of her today.






I also took this one. Could someone confirm or deny I got a female?



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[andrewross8705]

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.

[MmmBanana]

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.

[BallPythonWannaBe]

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

[Stewart_Reptiles]

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)



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.

[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!