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Hognose hunger strike

L

LouiseB

New member
My male hoggy goes off his food on a fairly regular basis. He'll have a month where he'll eat and then one where he won't, although it's not very predictable when he's going to switch from one to the other. I know this is supposed to be normal for a hognose, but I'm finding it difficult to work out when he wants to start eating again, and I'm currently wasting a lot of fuzzies by offering him food when he's on one of his "not eating" phases.
I suppose I'm really asking if there's any way of telling when a hoggy is hungry and ready to start eating again? And when should I be concerned if he doesn't? I'm a bit worried that he's losing too much weight this month...
 
I can't give you any advice, but I can sure commiserate. I think my hog went off her food more than she actually ate. I ended up trading her back to the breeder for my lav corn because I was so afraid I wasn't caring for her correctly. He's having as much trouble with her as I did, so at least it wasn't me.

Maybe instead of offering him a whole fuzzy you could halve it until he's back on his food. That way you're not wasting as much.
 
And this is why I have resisted them so far! What you really ought to do is get a kingsnake- like a nice Florida, to use as a back-up snake. I get out my kings before I thaw any mice, because they like to start eating me if they smell mice, and place them in their feeding containers. Then I feed everyone. If anyone refuses, they get one re-heat and an hour, covered, to think about it. If they still haven't eaten, I reheat the mouse and give it to the king. If everyone eats, then I thaw new mice for the king.

One thing that tempts most of my feeding-strikers, that they can't resist, is rat pinks. For some reason, a snake that won't eat its normal diet will quite often take rat pinks.
 
If a hognose male on fuzzies, he may be pretty much full grown...and that could be why he isn't eating regularly for you. It's not unusual for hogs to do that. When not eating, just offer him food a little less often - and start feeding more frequently when he IS hungry.

I don't think it is good advice to take a refused food item and give it to something else - actually, that's a bad idea because the first sign of a health problem is usually refusal to feed! I''m not saying your hognose is sick - I'm saying he might one day BECOME sick.

Besides, if you buy in bulk, fuzzies are like 25 cents each. Even if you throw away a months supply, that's a wasted dollar......and less than 2 even if you count in shipping or buy them overpriced at a herp show!
 
Ok- I re-feed on established snakes, that have been in my collection for a long period of time, who are refusing because of being blue, being a male in the spring, or self-brumating. Not a snake that I would suspect of being ill.

It's not the waste of money that bothers me at all- it's the waste of a life.
 
I used to re-feed with my hog all the time. I wasn't worried about the cost either, like Nanci said it's a waste of a life that bugged me.

I also knew she wasn't sick, she was just grouchy, and with hogs that's the more common reason to go off food.

Not knowing why the OP's hog is refusing, a better bet in this case is to halve the food item. The added benefit of doing that (besides reducing waste) is that the prey item smells more pungent when it's opened up, which sometimes entices those grumpy hogs.
 
I compost all of my unfed rodents, so even if I worried about my Karma, I don't think anything goes to waste. :)
 
My hognose isn't fully grown, but I have been feeding him halved fuzzies recently purely because my pet shop didn't have pinkies last time I was buying his food. He was fine with taking them before he went on strike!
I'm not necessarily bothered about the cost - although as with everything else we seem to pay more for our snake food here in the UK than you do in the States (40p per fuzzie!) - but it is frustrating when they refuse to feed. I'll try Nanci's tip about the rat pinkies if I can find any in my local shop.
 
My male is also on a hunger strike and I also feed the fuzzy to one of my other snakes. Usually my ball python because he is always the last to eat and he takes it with no problem. I quit stressing one we is in one of his moods!
 
One idea use a pet frog/toad, get a pet frog/toad, or get a frog/toad to freeze and reuse. Then when ever he refuses food, scent the food item with the toad or frog and see if he'll take it. In the wild its what they eat and it could make a difference, i know that what many breeders do to get babies to eat pinkies so why wouldn't it work for an adult?
 
The only thing I don't like about scenting with an established rodent feeder is that they can (do) get picky sometimes and "wait it out" for scented food.
 
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