Frequently Asked Questions

This is probability, the % is the probability that the snake *is* het for the gene in question, it will be either 100%, 66%, 50% or possible.

100% - one of the parents has two copies of the gene (visual for the morph) the other has either one or none. 

66% - both parents have one copy of the gene (they are both het for the morph)

50% - one parent has one copy of the gene. 

possible - one or both of the parents are either possibly, 50% or 66% het for the gene but it's not been proved out.

The Information and updates page will go into this in more depth with examples to explain in more detail soon.

For any one or a combination of the following reasons:

- Something isn't ideal in their environment, usually either the temperature or humidity gradient, juvenile hognose especially benefit from a damp hide if they're maintained at a low relative humidity level, some adult hognose also enjoy spending time in a damp hide when given the option.

- If it's between Oct-Feb then it's a time they would naturally be slowing down, and either brumating or thinking about it. 

- If it's a male hognose and it's between Feb-May he is likely thinking about finding girls rather than finding food. 

- If you recently upgraded the enclosure, changed the substrate, moved a hide, added something new, took something away, or any other minor or major alteration to the environment - they may just need a little while to feel comfortable enough to eat again. 

- You just got them within the last month, as above, they can need a little longer than other snakes to feel comfortable enough to eat, try not to stress and don't offer food every day as this will add to the stress. 

- If the snake is female and has been piling on a bit of extra weight over the past month, she may be getting ready to lay some eggs, even if she's not been mated.  Give her a lay box/damp hide (a plastic tub with a hole cut in the lid filled with sphagnum moss is good) 

- If you've bought the food from a different supplier than usual the different scents may be putting them off.

- They're just not hungry, if they're at a decent weight and have been feeding well till this strike it could be that they're just not that hungry and will naturally drop a bit of weight before resuming feeding. 

- They're sick, this is obviously the concern with any food refusal, the best thing to do is keep a track of the weight of your snake, weigh every month and you'll find the majority of food strikes even a few months long rarely result in much weight loss at all, if the snake does start losing weight, especially if it's over 10% of the bodyweight lost in less than a month or two, there is something going on that the snake is using it's energy to try and fight - a vet visit to an exotic specialist is important to discover the underlying issue here - a poop sample is useful but if the snake hasn't been eating it may not be possible - the vet can do a cloacal swab to check for some common parasites as well as taking blood to check organ function. 

- Don't stress! Check the weight and if it's not dropping by much there's no immediate panic.

- Check the temperature and humidity levels, add a damp hide as an option for the snake, a lidded plastic tub with a hole cut or melted out is a good option (a soldering iron is the best tool for melting an entry hole).

- Try not to get caught up with scenting and trying a multitude of different meats, after a couple of missed meals skip one of the scheduled feeds yourself and offer after an extended break. 

- After 4 missed meals I drop a prey size, after 6 missed meals I drop right back to large pinkies at 4-5g for one or two attempts, even for adults, I don't know why but they often take it.

- drop feed under cover - I use a plastic lid to put the mouse on so it doesn't get buried and then a piece of cork bark for adults or a half kitchen roll tube for babies, leave it in for the whole day - if this doesn't work, next feeding day do the same but feed in the evening and leave it all night. There's no need to heat prey for hognose, their main prey would be cold blooded (this doesn't mean straight from the fridge cold, their prey would be the same temperature as the environment so allow the food to warm up to room temperature and it's good to ) 

- try a different prey, day old quail is a good one if you can get hold of them, they're about 10-15g so no good for babies but I've had success with a number of striking snakes - for larger females you can follow on feed with a mouse while the quail is being taken to get a bigger chunk of nutrition in. I've never had success with chicken heart but I've heard lots of stories of people who have so it's worth a try, you can also cut strips the right size for the snake if the full heart is too large. Same for frogs legs.

- Assist feed (if your snake isn't overly stressy) having an extra pair of hands can be useful here - you want to gently open the snakes mouth (a credit card works well) and then place a wet mouse (2 sizes smaller than usual at most) as far back in the mouth as you can, then hold the mouth closed gently for about 15-20 seconds, once the snake stops struggling wait a few more seconds and then slowly release the pressure - some snakes will automatically continue to take the prey while others will just spit it straight back out - I have about a 25-30% success rate with this but I don't bother trying it with snakes that throw dramatic hissy fits. 

- After 4-5 months, if nothing has worked I use a pinkie pump, this is something that you really need to be taught how to use by someone else hands on but it is very useful for just kick starting the digestion again, once they have had some food going through their system after an extended food strike it often leads to feeding consistently again.  If it doesn't then even with minimal weight loss I'd be seriously considering a vet visit.

- I don't feed live but it is a method some people use to encourage feeding again, I would strongly advise against it, but if you are certain you want to I would advise nothing larger than a fuzzy. Hognoses don't constrict their prey, their weak venom is there to subdue fish and amphibians so they don't struggle as much while being eaten, it's not strong enough to kill a rodent in any decent amount of time, the rodent will suffer a great deal and could potentially cause a significant amount of harm to your snake if it's old enough to have teeth. 

 My current weight chart looks like this.

Snake weight --- Food weight (size) time between feeds

<5g --- 1-1.5g (pinkie) 3 days

5-7g --- 1.5-2g (pinkie) 3 days

7-10g --- 2-2.5g (pinkie) 3 days

10-13g --- 2.5-3g (pinkie) 3 days

13-20g --- 3-4g (pinkie/fuzzy) 3-4 days

20-35g --- 4-6g (fuzzy) 4-5 days

35-60g --- 6-8g (hopper) 4-5 days

60-80g --- 8-10g (hopper) 4-5 days

80-100 --- 10-15g (small) 6-7 days

100-150g --- 15-20g (small) 6-7 days

150-200g --- 20-30g (medium) 7-8 days

200-300g --- 30-40g (large) 7-8 days

300g-400g --- 2x 20-25g (medium) 7-8 days

400g + --- 2x 25-30g (medium)  7-8 days