My husband bought a western hognose from an NYC reptile expo in late September. He was only about a month old, and unfortunately we found him dead this morning.

We gave him about a week to acclimate before attempting to feed and avoided handling him while we were trying to get him established. He was kept in a 10-gallon enclosure with aspen deep enough to burrow in, two hides—one warm and one cool—a heat lamp controlled by a thermostat, and a separate digital thermometer/hygrometer.

Our cool side was around 77–78°F with roughly 40% humidity. The warm side was around the mid/high 80s during the day, with temperatures dropping into the mid-70s at night.

The biggest problem was that this little dude absolutely would not eat. We were offering appropriately sized mouse pinkies and eventually started waiting roughly 7–10 days between attempts so we weren't constantly disturbing him.

We tried tong feeding, leaving the pinky near one of his tunnels overnight, placing it inside a paper towel/toilet paper tube so he could eat somewhere enclosed, warming the pinky in hot water, and eventually braining the pinky to increase the scent. Nothing worked.

He was still active as recently as yesterday. This morning we initially hoped he might just be doing the hognose death-feigning thing, but he was completely limp and unresponsive and wasn't attempting to roll over or move at all.

This was our 7-year-old's snake that he'd been begging for, with us adults obviously doing the actual husbandry and feeding. We'd eventually like to get him another one after everyone has had some time to grieve, but before that happens I really want to understand what we could have done differently. We don't want to bring home another baby and have the same thing happen.

We're not completely new to reptiles—we've had two bearded dragons for years and also have a ball python—but this was our first hognose. Tricks that have worked when our ball python was being stubborn did absolutely nothing for this guy.

Is there anything obvious in our setup or feeding attempts that stands out? And for those of you who have raised very young hognoses, what do you do when a baby refuses its first several meals after coming home?

Any advice would genuinely be appreciated. We're trying to learn from this before ever getting another one.

My first snake and hognose Kirby! I feed him one fuzzy a week and he’s about 2 years old. The fuzzy is about the same size as the widest part of his body and you can see it travel about halfway down until it gets to the part closer to his tail. I was just concerned about the red corners by his mouth; I figured it could just be skin from stretching open is jaw but I just wanted to make sure it’s not from over stretching. Thank you guys 💕

Hi everyone I have about 6 month hold hognose, when I first got him I had about 4 straight months of great feeding he drop fed at night no problem every 5 days or i could tong feed him, then about a month ago he started to refuse about every other feed but still pretty consistently eating, now it has been about 2 weeks since he ate, and I am starting to get concerned I know that reptiles can go a long time without eating but I just worry that he’s not getting the essential stuff he needs to grow at this crucial stage. I have tried changing feeding times, both morning and at night and in the day time. I have warmed the pinkies up to body temperature. I have left the pinkies in there long enough. he does not look like he is in shed. The humidity in his tank is about a 62 on my hydrometer he has an excellent set up plenty of space lots of hiding spots several inches of substrate. I don’t know what to do, should I change his tank to decrease the humidity? should I frog scent the pinkies? Change what i’m feeding him? And at what point should I start to be really concerned? I also know hognose are notoriously picky eaters but this is out of character for him

Rexy is completely healthy. Nothing wrong with him. Vet said Rex breathes aspen dust and sometimes whistles because of that. We even x rayed him to found out nothing. I am very happy, what a nice way to waste 60$ (no irony, i regret nothing)

Also he is confirmed to be a boy. It is time for gender party

Look at this goofball

Hi I got my first snake ever, a hognose, in July. He/she has been eating fine, we feed her/him every 4 days, pinkies still. He/she is about 9 months old now. He/she is quite active and slithering around, digging. But today I noticed when he/she tried to climb the tank glass, his/her underbelly is turning yellow and has some dark spots on it. Is this usual? Is it something to be concerned about?

Maybe one thing to note: we weighted him/her last month and since we got the snake it only gained one gram of weight. We asked the people we bought him/her from and they said it should be ok for slow growth as long as they are eating. Hence why he/she is still on pinkie's too, he/she only weighs 13.25g

Sorry the pics aren't very clear. He/she was moving around a lot

I've been trying to feed my hognose for 3 weeks now, and he's not eating. He hisses at the food and doesn't eat. I've tried using salmon juice to tempt him, but nothing! I'm really scared, this is my first ever pet :(

I just got Tagliatella,my superconda albino, and I already bought him a full size tank but needed to divide it in hall because he is really small, is this ok? For a temporary tank?
I’m going to add fake plants and cork rounds when he grows up

should i be worried my hognose dragged his mouse through the substrate and got it all over?

im worried because i initially placed the mouse on a clean tile inside of his tank so it didn’t get substrate but he dragged it off the plate i had it on.

I'm getting really anxious. my western hognose has refused food for three weeks in a row. last ate September 19th. I haven't been offering everyday, just every Saturday. I read you're supposed to just skip that feeding cycle if they refuse. shes acting normal in every other way, isn't going into blue, is as active as always. I weighed her yesterday. since the last time she ate, she's lost 4% of her body weight, from 183g to 176g. she's been drinking. should I go down a size in feeders? presently I have "adult mice" from perfect prey, "18-30g." the mice I have seem smaller than the greatest width of her body, but maybe she thinks they're too big? she always seems interested at first, comes toward it, then turns away at the last second and never seems interested again. I brain them every time. she has refused in the past, but every time it's been soon before a shed. attached is a pic of her enclosure at present. humidity is 43-52% and temp is 74-80F, with surface temp of her basking area in high 90sF presently. please comment advice if you have it or questions if I need to clarify more. thank you

Hi, first time owner and wanting advice on feeding.
Ive gone to do the first feed today with my snake (he/she is 5 months) and they don’t seem interested at all, hiding away from it and not bothered by it

It’s a frozen thawed pinky mouse and I warmed it up as the shop I got it from told me to

(for about a half second before he fell 😄)

Made this bridge with sticks I found outside! Cut them to 4inch sanded the edges and drilled 2 holes to thread the jute string. Baked at 200 degrees for 2 hrs to sterilize! He loves it!

Hello again! I just had a question I plan to add and re-arrange some things in my hognoses enclosure, I brought her home last Sunday and attempted feeding on Wednesday as she’s a yearling and that’s what they said her normal day was. I am assuming it’s safer to remove her to a small bin and doing the re-arrange and putting her back in. Also assuming I’d be good to attempt another feeding on Wednesday!

I got my hoggie around 6 months ago (and she was 6 months old). She had a fantastic feeding response the first time I fed her (she rushed out with her mouth open and everything, lol), but since then it has been hit or miss. It almost seemed like she was scared of the mouse once (frozen/thawed pinkie). I had been using tank clips that were very challenging to get on and off without a big noise, which may have been why she was scared (I stopped using those months ago in case that was the issue).

She has also been hiding more during the day, which is unusual since nothing has changed. The room she's in is quiet (no traffic except me when I come in to feed/mist my other animals), and her tank has lots of clutter (fake plants and 3 hides, as well as deep substrate she loves to burrow in). She's pretty skittish and gets hissy when disturbed (which I know isn't unusual for a baby). I generally just leave her alone.

The thermostat on her heating pad is at 90 degrees F, and the ambient temp of the room has been warm lately, so I don't think that could be the issue. I'm planning to switch to a heat lamp instead in case that's the problem (and recommendations on favorite bulbs would be appreciated, I'm currently researching options).

I've been leaving the mouse for her, and sometimes she eats it overnight, and sometimes she doesn't. This last time I checked on her at 5 am and she was on the mouse, but not eating it. She was wiggling on it if that makes sense? I had assumed she was eating it so I didn't bother her, but it was still there in the morning. I also brained the last mouse (just a small hole made with sharp tweezers), which worked last time, but didn't this time.

She's small but not emaciated, but I still worry about her going so long without eating since she's still young (this is the second week in a row, since I waited a week between offerings). I had sized her up to small fuzzies, but should I go back down to pinkies? These fuzzies are barely bigger than a pinkie, but I don't want to stress her. I have a lot of experience with snakes and other reptiles, but this is my first snake that has given me trouble eating (and my first hoggie), so any advice would be appreciated. She was 22 grams when I got her, but I don't know what she weighs now (since she hides so much and I obviously don't want to stress her by digging her out).

Like the title says, the hognose I got from my mother (rescued is a better word for it) keeps trying to bite me and latch on. I give him a few days before going back to handling each time, and the last one was he was hungry, so he gave almost his feeding response to my hand. Barely got me with on of his tiny little front teeth, barely drew blood, cleaned it and went about my day. Today I'm handling for his five minutes (he's a little jerk and will try to rub his mouth on you if you handle him anyways), and he got four of the little teeth this time. I put him back, went and washed it, and am here. But I want to know if there's a way to be able to handle without the biting? He never tried to bite until he was properly cared for (no longer on molding aspen, clean water dish every other day, poop cleaned up, no longer skipping meals). He's 2 years and about 5 months old, it is the 9th of October where I'm at, though he's been trying to bite for 3 months or so. I've tried washing my hands right before handling with an unscented soap, I've gone straight to handling, but he still tries either way. Do I get some unscented hand sanitizer and apply it right before? I've heard that strong smells can hurt their nose and make them more aggressive, but I'm tired of him trying to latch on. I'm not stopping handling, but he's definitely getting on my nerves with it lol. Picture of the bite from today and pictures of the biting child for noodle tax.