Frog juice scenting for hognoses?

Hi all, I was wondering what folks thought about Reptilinks frog juice to scent prey for picky hognoses. I’ve never scented but I’m considering trying Reptilinks frog juice for one of my males who’s particularly prone to long hunger strikes. Anyone have experience using that product?

Seems like the biggest con of scenting is that it can be difficult to get them to go back to unscented. However, if the product works, it’s not unreasonable to think that frog juice will be around for a while (i.e., we’ll be able to use the product for years to come).

1 Like

I keep a random assortment of things in my freezer for scenting. What works for some may not work for others. I keep them them in tiny little snack jar containers from the dollar store. There’s canned sardines, canned tuna, salmon, trout, chopped up frogs legs, and some vienna sausage juice.

I’ve briefly considered getting the frog juice but I really didn’t want to spend the minimum plus shipping. Especially considering their facility is less than a hour away from my house. Kevin Rhodes makes a magic toad scent. I’ve heard good things about it. That’ll run you about 40 bucks. It comes in a piece of gauze and you reconstitute it in some water to make your own toad juice.

3 Likes

I have never had to use the frog scent for our hogs but it has worked for a few other reluctant species for me. And I had no difficulty weaning them off of it as they became more established

2 Likes

It works great. I have a few babies that have to be scented. Once the pinkies are thawed I put them in a small deli cup, and let the juice thaw. Once it is thawed I put a little in the deli cup with the pinkies and mix it around so they are covered in the scent juice. So far I have had good luck with it for picky eaters.

3 Likes

Thanks for the replies, everyone. My problem child just started eating again (unscented). But I’ll likely pick up some scent (Reptilinks or otherwise) to try to end the next hunger strike early.

1 Like

You can see details @ hognose1.com
I tried all kinds of things but the toad scent just works best and most consistently. 3-10 meals is all it takes to switch your hog back to unscented. Each pack does come with enough flavor for 30+ pinky sized applications. stores for a year.

Kevin Rhodes

1 Like

Ive had great success using the fluid left on the bottom of a fresh raw chicken tray (usually wings that i buy for my ferrets)

From a health perspective, it’s probably not a great idea to use the runoff from the chicken to scent. Packaged raw chicken has a ton of issues with bacterial contaminants, it’s why it’s so important to thoroughly wash hands after touching it. (Sort of like how raw pork has major parasite problems- it’s the sort of thing they make certain you know before they let you graduate vet school.)

2 Likes

No different to using day old chicks…

It actually is very different in terms of the potential zoonotic disease you are likely to encounter. But that’s a topic for another thread, not this one.

3 Likes

It’s different to use non-processed and frozen than using processed meat that is refrigerated.

2 Likes

Western and tricolor hognose breeder here. I have had very little success using any of the ReptilLinks products with our hatchlilngs, including the frog links and frog, gecko, fish, and anole scents. That isn’t to say they haven’t worked at all, just that they don’t work as well as easier and far less expensive scents and feeding approaches. Our go-to scents are fresh salmon and sardine–I’d say roughly 80% of our initial nonfeeders take one of those scents. Toad scent is closest to the magic bullet that I’ve seen, but it’s not guarantee either. (And toad is very different than frog, at least to the snakes.)

It doesn’t hurt to have the frog stuff in our arsenal as we have about 200 baby hoggies each year, but for someone who just has 1-5 hoggies, I wouldn’t recommend.

2 Likes