Overfeeding?

Is it possible to over feed a hungry hognose? I have a juvenile female (20g) that is a voracious eater, and will readily take a 2nd small pinkie immediately after eating one. This morning she went after it so fast, she ended up in her water bowl and proceeded to eat the entire thing, fully submerged in her water! I usually feed her 1 small pinkie every 4-5 days. I want my animals to be healthy, and just not sure if she really NEEDS the extra for growth, or if she’s simply a porker.

I feed a lot of my babies (corn snakes) 2 pinkies at a time every 5 days. It’s been my understanding pinky mice and rats just don’t have a lot of sustaining nutrition in them and so getting them bigger to give more sustainable prey isn’t a bad thing. You can also calcium dust the pinky butts to give a little boost to a growing baby as well.

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A 20g hognose can eat a larger prey item than a small pinkie. Try feeding a peach fuzz. I’ve successfully fed peach fuzz to animals that are half that size. It is not excessive to feed a prey item like that you your growing colubrid every 5 days.

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Yes, it is possible to overfeed a hognose, and doing so repeatedly isn’t healthy for them, but it doesn’t sound like you are overfeeding her. Same as @westridge, I start moving them up to small fuzzies around 20 grams. Feeding two pinkies is a fine replacement for that if you need to use them up, but a small fuzzy may have more nutritional value. Congratulations on your hungry hognose!

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Thanks! I’m new to them, and admittedly ignorant, so I’m also curious about the use of calcium powder. Why do people use it? Is it simply to make the snakes bones stronger? How do they get calcium in the wild?

Too much feeding can cause problems, so feed in limited quantities.