Feeding upgrade

This girl has grown from 12 grams to 14.1 grams since I got her one month ago! Currently on single pinky every 5 days. Should I stick to this colubrid feeding chart and switch her to double pinkies every 5 days once she hits 16 grams? Thanks for any input!




3 Likes

Your hoggie is so cute! Congratulations on her growing so well with you. You’re obviously taking good care of her.

The feeding plan pictured is a bit aggressive, IMHO. I breed corns. I generally feed weekly once they’re over 14 g or so. The thing is, young colubrids of different species have different needs at those weight ranges. A baby hognose who is 16 g is quite different developmentally from a 16 g corn snake or a 16 g pine snake. I’m gonna call some hognose folks for more species-specific thoughts. How 'bout it, @trnreptiles, @garciademueller, @erie-herps, @t_h_wyman ?

4 Likes

Thank you!

3 Likes

I highly suggest you check out these two threads/posts regarding hognoses:

And this is a better feeding chart for hognoses, I find:

5 Likes

Thanks I’ll check those out!

5 Likes

I’m seriously going to see if there’s a chart like this for ball pythons.

2 Likes

Hi! Yeah I do think that feeding chart is a bit aggressive. Maybe something a serious breeder would use, but not something I personally stick to.

I keep my baby hoggies eating 1 pinky twice a week, then once they get big enough for fuzzies I have them eat those twice a week.

Once they’re big enough for hopper mice then I switch to weekly and keep them on weekly. Adult males stay in hoppers while adult females are eventually moved up to small/medium adult mice.

Adult females that I’m breeding I will feed twice a week as well to keep her full (so she doesn’t think about snacking on the male) and so she can use the extra energy for her eggs.

1 Like

I have only breezed through this quick so I may have missed something but, hogs, evolutionarily, are very different from things like corns/rats, kings, Pits and the like. They are not evolved to take high levels of mammals and the higher fat content in them. As such, I would advocate away from feeding rodents heavily because that will lead to obesity. I feed hatchling hogs one pinky every 10-14 days. And as soon as they are feeding consistently I start varying their diet with quail/quail pieces, frog legs, ReptiLinks, tilapia filet segments…

The great thing about hogs is that once they are feeding consistently they will take just about anything. The bad thing about hogs is also that once they are feeding consistently they will take just about anything at any time. Yes, rodents are easy. But that does not always mean they are best and especially not in excess

5 Likes

This is something that I find really interesting. I would’ve just assumed (before doing too much more research) that hoggies would mostly be fed rodents, probably because thats what i see discussed the most. Definitely goingt o look into reptilinks when i end up getting one.

As far as things like the tilapia fillets and what not, assuming one could just use frozen fillets and cut them into smaller pieces equivalent in size to whatever other "food’ you would be feeding?

2 Likes

Because rodents were pretty much the only available mass-produced feeder for so many years, the hobby has basically brainwashed itself to believe that all snakes eat rodents.

All of our US hognose are predominantly frog/toad-eaters. Now, years of [unintentional] selective breeding has biased our captive population to be more willing to take rodents, but evolutionarily they are not designed to have a diet composed almost exclusively of rodents
.
.
.

I will forewarn that ReptiLinks are kind of expensive and may not be as economical if you are only dealing with one animal that eats them. That is why international grocery stores are a huge help. At my local one I can get freshly harvested frog legs, chicken hearts, chicken necks, chicken gizzards (kidney, liver, and other internals), quail eggs, all kinds of fresh and frozen fish, frozen snails, frozen crayfish… It is a smorgasbord of non-traditional feed items
.
.
.
quote=“nswilkerson1, post:9, topic:36694”]
As far as things like the tilapia fillets and what not, assuming one could just use frozen fillets and cut them into smaller pieces equivalent in size to whatever other "food’ you would be feeding?
[/quote]

Yep. Just cut them down to a reasonable size. You can do the same with frog legs, cut them into sections according to their anatomy or just trim the flesh off the bone

4 Likes

Currently I live near Chicago and have a large selection of things I could get from the Chinatown markets there, so that’s interesting to think about. We’ll likely be moving somewhere in the next 6 months so I’ll have to keep that in mind when we move.

I knew this, mainly because it was something I was concerned with that’s kept me from wanting to dive into trying to breed them, is having access to frogs/toads to feed the hatchlings if needed.

1 Like

You can start them on pinks. And once they are eating consistently they tend to turn into garbage disposals

3 Likes

Interesting, I do feed my hogs primarily rodents but will occasionally offer them other things like scrambled egg, chicken/turkey giblets, etc.

I suppose it’d be good for me to offer those kinds of things to them more then!

3 Likes