Merry Christmas Hoggie from Santa...

[anatess]

My son wrote a very lengthy letter to Santa outlining all these good things he did to deserve a great Christmas present... and in the end he says, "... and because of these good things, it would be really cool if you would help my mom get me a hognose snake".
So, he opened his Christmas present at midnight and got all the things for a hognose habitat... and a hissy, bad tempered hognose (well, what did you expect being stuck in a critter keeper wrapped in Christmas paper and shoved to the back of a Christmas Tree that is playing Christmas songs for 6 long hours)... We almost got a heart-attack after we got to the last present and he picked up the "box" and was about to shake it and heard something like a rattlesnake sound and almost dropped the box!
So, my son named him Zeke (don't ask me why) and we built his house together and put him there and he immediately burrowed under the walnut shells never to be seen again. Sigh. We went to Christmas brunch at grandma's and when we got back, he was visible in the hide. We realized he is too big for this 10 gallon enclosure. My husband and I had a misunderstanding on which hognose to get - I thought we were getting the baby hoggie from Texas, but I guess it was too risky to ship since Texas has been super cold the past few days. So, hubby got the hoggy from the reptile store closeby instead. We're going to let him be for a few days before uprooting the whole thing to a bigger enclosure. And as such, I didn't get a picture of just the snake. We were too excited to build the house that we didn't think to take pictures of the snake first...
I'm super duper thankful for all the people here that helped me with hognose husbandry information. You guys ROCK!


In this 2nd picture, you can kinda see Zeke coiled up inside the hide.

[anatess]

Ah man! I posted it to the wrong forum! I don't know how to move it to the Hognose section.
I haven't slept since yesterday and the brain is starting to overload...

[wax32]

Great present for your son! I'm sure a mod will move the thread no big deal.

[rabernet]

Moved it for you! Wish I had gotten such a cool gift!

[Louie1]

Very nice enclosure! It looks awesome! The hog should eventually be more visable in time. He is just settling in. Congrats! Can't wait to see pictures of Zeke!

[anatess]

Finally got a photo!
Here's Zeke in his feeding tank (we move him to a critter keeper to feed to prevent him from swallowing the walnut shells and also to get the opportunity to clean his tank).


And here's a really cute picture of him drinking after he ate. By the way, he ate a 3-week-old ASF rat, so I guess ASFs are okay. That was wierd because my husband was out and I don't know how to pre-kill a rat, so I just went ahead and dropped the rat in the feeding tank and Zeke ate it without a problem. He hissed like crazy (he is still nervous around us) but then he saw the rat, went on stealth mode, struck the rat on the butt and ate it tail first. After having ball pythons do the coil, I thought it was really wierd to see the hognose strike and chew with the rat still alive...

[Hardwikk]

Congrats on getting a Hogger! I'm sure when Santa was handling the box and heard it hiss he thought "I sure hope this thing isn't being used to even-out a sibling rivalry" . I'm always happy to help out. But if it wasn't a juvy, how big is it?

[anatess]

I weighed Zeke yesterday and he was only 80g
Dunno how big they normally get but the store owner told me he is over a year and a half old. It is really weird because the store owner said he is a very picky eater and would go months without eating but he's been eating weekly without hesitation for me. Store owner also said he only eats large pinkie rats with no hair. I fed him 1 month old ASF rats with hair and all that (weanling) which is a bigger size than the pinkie - it is just slightly bigger than Zeke's widest girth and he has no problem eating it as long as it is pre-killed. I fed him live weanling once and it took him a long time to catch his food. So we pre-killed the next one and he crawled up to it and swallowed in under a minute.

But, he is a real hisser. Really nervous sort. He would puff out his body, I guess to make himself look bigger, I don't know. He even struck a few times but just an "air" strike - pulled back before his nose hit my husband's arm. Really weird.

He is so different from our ball pythons that it is so very interesting to watch him. He is active during the day and stays in his hide when the light goes off which is completely opposite from our ball pythons. I've kept his tank next to me when I work to get him used to me through the glass. I don't know if that's a good idea but I'm not quite sure what the best way to get him used to us... We left him alone except for feeding since we got him until yesterday when my husband took him out of the tank and put him on the coffee table with his hide. He immediately went to his hide and stayed there the whole time. Tonight, we'll probably start handling him since he has been eating fine... are we doing okay?

[FastDad]

It´s great to see that santa hand out so manny Hoggies (Hogger ) in 2008

[anatess]

Okay, he is definitely a good eater. I've been feeding him every 5 days and he hasn't skipped yet. I fed him a slightly bigger weanling ASF (6 weeks old) and he took it without a problem.

And he is still a hisser with the "air" strikes everytime we take him out of his enclosure, but once he is in our hands, he just chills there and sometimes crawls around with his tongue flicking constantly. So, I think the hissing and striking is just for "show". He doesn't seem stressed out. I weighed him last night and he was 95 grams! 15 grams gain in a week... interesting. And he is 21" long. So, he has the build of a cornsnake, not a ball python. I thought they would be bulkier like a ball python... I really think our hognose is too small for his age - which is understandable since he didn't eat too well at the store.

I love this little guy. He is waaaayyy more interesting than the bp's! A myriad of personality quirks and awake during the day! I'm hoping to find another hoggie soon. What's a good morph to have?