Hognose care

[Meli]

All you Hoggy people (hahahaha), how are you heating them? Specifically, those of you using those exo-terra tanks? I have the small tall one (12x12x18) and have 4" heat tape running along the bottom back end and that is it. But, I got to thinking that perhaps I should have an overhead lamp on them as well and tone down the heat tape? My female has decided not to eat now. I think these guys are like ball pythons! I really do.

[chuck33]

IF she has already started to refuse food then I would cool them for the winter and start warming up again in mid Feb. All the hognoses around here are burmating for the winter. But if you want to try and keep her from burmating if it is a young one then I would try and crank the heat in the whole cage up. Mid 80s around the whole cage. Now if the female is old enough to breed, might be nothing you can do about it. She is feeling the change in barometric pressure and is going to think it is time to burmate and more then likely will refuse food. If this is the case then best thing to do is let it happen and hope you can find a boy in the spring. I have mine in a AP rack that I have belly heat on. I have the heat tape at about 91 degrees. They seem to do rather well on it like this. Right now it is turned off and they are experiencing the house temps for their burmation, I'll warm them up in the spring and see how it goes.

Chuck

[Meli]

IF she has already started to refuse food then I would cool them for the winter and start warming up again in mid Feb. All the hognoses around here are burmating for the winter. But if you want to try and keep her from burmating if it is a young one then I would try and crank the heat in the whole cage up. Mid 80s around the whole cage. Now if the female is old enough to breed, might be nothing you can do about it. She is feeling the change in barometric pressure and is going to think it is time to burmate and more then likely will refuse food. If this is the case then best thing to do is let it happen and hope you can find a boy in the spring. I have mine in a AP rack that I have belly heat on. I have the heat tape at about 91 degrees. They seem to do rather well on it like this. Right now it is turned off and they are experiencing the house temps for their burmation, I'll warm them up in the spring and see how it goes.

Chuck


Yeah, she's just a baby in a exo-tera cage that is side by side with a male of the same age. Last month the male was off feed until I gave in and bought anoles to scent but she was eating unscented on her own and now she quit. They are Sept. 07 hatchlings.

[The Snake Guru]

I probably won't be much help here....the room I keep them in is always around 82 degrees so I basically have a undertank heat pad for the hotspot and that's it. It is that time of year when these guys get to be picky eaters though....I decided not to cool mine this year because the female I was intending to breed needs a little catch up time, though I have switched them to an everyother week feeding schedule....seems to work better around this time since they aren't overly interested in feeding. LOL

~B~

[chuck33]

Yeah, she's just a baby in a exo-tera cage that is side by side with a male of the same age. Last month the male was off feed until I gave in and bought anoles to scent but she was eating unscented on her own and now she quit. They are Sept. 07 hatchlings.

Since they are so young have you tried other things then scenting? Scenting is one of the worst things for hoggies. They almost never get off of scented food. They will eat non scented food right out of the egg. I have had to deal with a hoggie that was on scented food and it took me forever it seems like to get her off of it. That being said there are several things you can try if they are not wanting to eat. First things first have you tried live? I know everyone is big on frozen thawed but it's a baby still only 3 months old. Incerease the ambient temps, try a live pink or crawler. IF that dosn't work I always try braining. The ones I have seem to love a brained mouse every now and again, drives em nuts. Good luck with it, babies are easier to keep from burmation if you will just raise the overall temps in the cage to the mid to upper 80's.

Chuck

[Meli]

Since they are so young have you tried other things then scenting? Scenting is one of the worst things for hoggies. They almost never get off of scented food. They will eat non scented food right out of the egg. I have had to deal with a hoggie that was on scented food and it took me forever it seems like to get her off of it. That being said there are several things you can try if they are not wanting to eat. First things first have you tried live? I know everyone is big on frozen thawed but it's a baby still only 3 months old. Incerease the ambient temps, try a live pink or crawler. IF that dosn't work I always try braining. The ones I have seem to love a brained mouse every now and again, drives em nuts. Good luck with it, babies are easier to keep from burmation if you will just raise the overall temps in the cage to the mid to upper 80's.

Chuck


Live is a problem because I can't get live that size. I have tried braining when I first got them but I'll give it another go in a few days since they refused today again. The female just shed this morning and I think the male will be next but he hasn't gone blue yet. I have the temps up so keep your fingers crossed ;)

Thanks for your help!