Hello, I purchased an adult female hog (295 grams) a couple of weeks back and she has yet to eat for me. The seller said she was eating rat pups, and I assumed he meant f/t as I thought if it was live it would have been specified, but it appears I could have been wrong. I left her alone for a week then tried to feed her a f/t fuzzy mouse, no reaction so I left it in with her for 24 hours and it still wasn’t eaten. I wait another week and again nothing. Next week I try a f/t rat pup and she had no reaction to it, so I took it out a couple hours later and scented it with egg, and put it back in, and again, she didn’t eat it. When I try wiggling the rat around she simply freezes and stares at it, if I touch the rat to her face she recoils and hisses. I’ve messaged the breeder but he hasn’t responded yet. I haven’t tried live yet as it’s not a super viable option for me, especially long term, but I definitely will do it if necessary.
Does anyone have any tips, suggestions, or personal experiences? She has lost 6 grams since I got her, which isn’t super alarming, but I don’t want her to lose any more weight.
Here’s a picture of her enclosure. Her warm side is at 88 degrees.
Hopefully the breeder responds as it may be a case of her conditions not aligning with what she’s used to and causing stress
May also just be taking awhile to acclimate to the move
Have you tried to ensure the rat is warm, I.e using the hair drier technique or leaving on slate at the hot side of the enclosure?
From keeping a hognose for a short time, the nudging them with the prey trick never worked for me. It works for my bp, but the hognose was not on board.
Ours did seem to prefer live. F/t was never her thing. But I only kept her for a short time, so im not completely sure.
I think they also eat frogs and toads? Im not sure if you can purchase stuff to scent the prey with. Ive heard tuna juice also works.
@izzie I’d suggest a bit more substrate in that bin, Hognoses are burrowers, might be a little more comfortable with the ability to fully bury herself.
When I bred western hogs, I always had to scent the f/t mice with a toad for the first couple of meals before they would transition over. It may be worth a shot if the seller doesn’t get back with you.
I’ve not had any luck with reptilinks but scenting with frog or house gecko works well. Boiling ft pinks, dipping them in tuna juice, washing them with dawn dish soap, and rubbing them in dirt in your yard are all sometimes effective in getting difficult colubrids/colubroids established.
