I have 2- 2023 hognoses that have outgrown their baby bins, but are too small for the enclosures I’ve got them for when they’re adults (both a 36x18 long). For the time being, I split one of the enclosures in half with a polycarbonate sheet so they have 18x18 of space until the female outgrows it (so, maybe a few months).
While spot cleaning, I couldn’t find my male and started to look at how he could have escaped. I’ve eventually found him of the female’s side, but i have no idea how he got on her side. I’ve since reinforced the sheet with tape while his enclosure is being set up. The camera that I have didnt capture the escaped (is motion activated).
My question is if it’s possible for them to accidentally lock up and breed at their age? Is this something I need to go to the vet for? I’m a little freaked out about this.
I’m sorry you’ve had a scare, although I’m glad you did locate your male again. I don’t work with hogs myself, though I’m sure others who do will have advice on the fertility question. My understanding is that the male would potentially be fertile, and the female might be although it would not be good for her to breed. There’s nothing a vet would do about it, though.
This is potentially problematic. Tape and snakes are a bad mix. I’d advise putting one into a completely different enclosure, even if a temporary one until you get the one you want set up.
Yearlings should really only need a 6qt-15qt bin, putting two opposite gendered animals in an enclosure with just a divider is not a good idea in the long term. Do not use tape inside of an enclosure. Tape is a no-no, if your snake gets stuck to it, there can be serious harm done. Everything from torn skin to possible death. That said, these snakes are likely too young to breed, though nothing is impossible. It’d be easier to know based on weights, as age in hognoses isn’t the best indicator. If your female is still quite small, it’s incredibly unlikely she’d be fertile. As @caryl said, even if they did breed, there’s nothing you or a vet could do.
So yes the male can breed at a year, I don’t agree with it but many pair them young.
And if the females pregnant then you need to take to a vet imo to terminate, infact I’d give a couple weeks and take her to get her checked out to see if he did have her or not and sort if so.
She’ll be too small to pass the eggs and can become egg bound, not worth the risk to her life.
The male can (theoretically by age, but not by the current size), but it’s incredibly unlikely that a 26g female is sexually mature and/or ovulating. On top of that, I’ve never heard of a procedure to terminate a pregnancy in hognoses that isn’t surgical (and would likely be nigh impossible on an animal of that size).
Yeah it is surgical to terminate, read of others who’ve done this as female snake was too small to pass eggs.
Also seen people pair year old males and females before, shouldn’t be done but some people just don’t care unfortunately and the female has become pregnant.
Unsure if weights affect it but if so then should be all good and not pregnant luckily!!
I’ve spoken with my vet the day I noticed and he’s fairly confident that nothing happened. However, there’s nothing he can do until 6-8 weeks after this incident (radio graph/xray for verification). I do want that peace of mind so I’ll know more during my appointment June 17th.