Hognose general BS

awww i just bought my hognose hes soooooooo cute hes 7 inches long and i just wanna squeez him (im not very professional am i sorry lol) but hes my first hognose i fell in love with them when i worked at a pet store about 3 or 4 years ago and would care for an adult we had there. im gonna see if i can get him to eat his first pink since i got him about 5 days ago ......hope everything goes well they had him eating steadily at the reptile shop and sent me home with a chart of it so wish me luck!
lisa

he ate it

Hey, how do you guys scent your pinkies? I read over the method on Hognose.com, but was wondering if there were any less messy ways to go about it. The guy I bought my western hognose from said that he just rubs a live tree frog against the pinkie. Someone else I know who is really into snakes (he's an animal rehabilitator focusing on reptiles) told me the same thing.
What do you guys think? Has anyone here done it this way with positive results?

When I first got mine, he wouldn't eat. So I caught a frog and rubbed it ALL OVER the pinkie. The pinkie was pretty slimey when I was done. It took him a while but after a couple of times he did start eating. I kept the frog until I knew I didn't need it anymore, then I turned it loose. I had to scent the pinkie probably for about 2 months at the most.

I've heard of other disgusting ways but this way worked for me so hopefully it'll work for you too!

Good luck!

Debbie

Thats what I had to do with mine.It will take a f/t pinkie now without any frog or toad scent on it.

My first snake was a Western Hognose baby! (Actually, it's my only snake...). Got him/her when he was 1 month old. How can you tell if it's a male or female? He's too small to probe... And yes, mine is a finicky eater sometimes too. He's 6 months now... 11 inches long.

Nichalia

There is a website where there is a picture of the tail of a female and a male hognose. You can find it at Webmaster@herpo.com or go to kingsnake.com and look for John Hollister in the breeder section. When you get to his website look for his article about "tips on visually sexing snakes". He just happens to have hognose snakes used as an example. But yours might be too young still.......worth a try. They're actually very easy to sex when they're old enough...Good luck

Debbie

Here is the page you are referring to
http://www.herpo.com/sexing/index.html

John has changed his email due to spam issues and I believe the one you listed has by now been deactivated.

Mine is male! Thanks for the help.

If you want to talk about a hard to mantain animal besides the Eastern Hog, It would definetely be the Southern Hognose. It is an endangered animal, and only found in 6 states, I own one, and it has very strict living requirments. It's about 16 inches long (female) and its main temperature is in the high 70s, It also cant use bark, and other normal substrates, my personal preference is a type of jungle mix.

It needs Sphagnum moss and almost 6 in. of substrate (to burrow), no natural nests have ever been found, and they are a very rare snake, and i am grateful for having one. Thought you might like to know, lol.