Western Hognose

Originally Posted by Nanci

Very pretty! I love how they feel. How were the babies to get started feeding??

I actually didn't have to deal wit that on these 4 Nanci.

Reason is, a friend of mine had 3 poss het Lavender females that I took interest in. He told me, take the 3 and all I want in return is a Lavender if one is produced.

So, I shipped him these 4 to pay my debt to him not long after they hatched.
He was good with that. I haven't heard from him yet to see how they are doing, but he has alot of experience with them.

I was told by Rich Hume when I bought the Axanthics & Albinos from him that, if you are going to get into hognose, you are going to need to have toads on hand.........no two ways about it.

I take it that some baby hoggies might be tough to get feeding on TF pinky mice right out of the egg, hence having the toads.
I've also heard tuna juice or fish scent works very well too, then again there is also the almost automatic boiled, but then again I'm not sure if that works as well on hoggies as it does on corns ??

Walter
BOUT' CORNS !!

My years breeding them I found that if I had late-season hatchlings that refused I could brumate them and get them feeding that next season. Never had one refuse doing that. Been 12 years since I last did nasicus though. My luck with kennerlyi has been non-existent; 3 young that all refused meals including hatchling side-blotch and whiptail lizards, as well as toads. I found it weird, because both my adults are WC and have never skipped a beat on f/t mice.

I love Western Hognose snakes! They were my first choice, but they are unfortunately illegal here, as they are actually native to my province (Alberta). I think the law was meant to stop people from wild catching them, but they decided to make it illegal to buy, own, or sell them here too. Laws suck

Guilty

Looks as if a lot of us have been "bitten" by the Hog bug lately LOL! Most of my overseas customers keep buggin me about these darn things so I figured, what the heck, can't hurt to have a few laying around right?

I have had great success using the juice from canned salmon on picky feeders. Also, they seem to like wet food, so sometimes even just dipping a mouse into their water dish before offering it works wonders!

Originally Posted by Nanci

Very pretty! I love how they feel. How were the babies to get started feeding??

I agree, Nanci......very cool feeling. Very similar to the way a rattlesnake feels.

Originally Posted by Walter Smith

and being new to the hognose, which are an entirely different ball game as far as breeding than corns

This is my fourth year breeding hogs and I have to say that the breeding and incubation aspect of hogs is exactly as easy as it is for corns, IMO. I brumate everyone at the same time in the same room, do pair intros on the same schedule, and this year I incubated both species in the same cooker.

Nothing is different until after they've hatched!

Right now I have 20 babies that I've offered food to and only 6 of them haven't eaten a f/t pink. And I've offered no other options. Yes, some of them aren't eating reliably yet, but they're at least on their way.

The best advice I can give you is to be as hands off with the babies as possible. This year I stopped doing the helicopter mom thing, I left the eggs alone, not a lot of pics (if any), and I left them together until after they shed (I know a lot of people do this, and with corns as well, but I don't usually). I'm pretty happy with how it's working out.

And sexing them is the easiest.

Good luck, Walter. You're in for some fun!