Switching feeders for hoggies

I have two mexican hoggies that are a few months old and very solidly eating frozen thawed mice pinkies/fuzzies. They’re both veracious eaters when it comes to mice thanks to the breeder I got them from!

At the same time I raise/breed african soft furs for my ball pythons, the exact opposite of the hoggies in the manner of feeding (they are ohhhh so picky).

Anyway, because of this I have a glut of different size/age ASFs that would make for perfect meals for my hognoses but alas, they don’t seem to want to eat live pinkies/fuzzies. I also know that hoggies will eat other sorts of feeders and was hoping it was just as easy as offering but it doesn’t seem to be in their taste at all at this moment.

I will be setting up a CO2 chamber to start culling/freezing the extra ASFs I’m beginning to get so sooner or later I could also try offering a prekilled pinky to them if they’re a little weirded out by moving prey.

Anywho, was wondering if anyone has any pointers on making them less picky and more open to a variety of foods. I really like having live feeders on hand simply because they’re a lot cheaper at the moment and also less gross (last few f/t pinkies I had tore in half. Though the hoggies didn’t seem to care about that :roll_eyes: ). Plus sooner or later its nice to be able to nutrient load prey for them.

1 Like

Try rubbing a thawed out mouse on the ASF and then offering it, just getting the smell on the new feeder item can get them interested.

You can also try leaving the live ASF pinks/fuzzies in a bowl overnight for them to find, sometimes they are just timid to try new things when being watched. I would not do this with anything larger than fuzzies though, do not want to risk anything large enough to fight back

2 Likes

I’ll have to try this, generally when I feed them I have one that will eat right out of my hand (not on purpose, she’s just THAT happy to have food) and the other I have to leave in a container alone with the food item to get him to eat sometimes. I’ll try scenting when I have another set of pinkies on hand to see how it goes. Thanks!

3 Likes

Can’t wait for an update.

1 Like