I got my baby in February at a repticon. He was 10g when I got him and the breeder was a local guy who had hogs and tricolors. I wanted a more grown tricolor but he said this was the only one he had and when I held the baby I saw he was active, clean, not skinny and no wounds so I asked the breeder questions and he said the baby had about 7 consistent meals on f/t pink pieces but didn’t have an exact b date and was ready to go and would sell him to me for $250 so I honestly jumped at the chance since all the tricolors I had seen on MM were $350+ but since this was at a repticon and I know some people sell them cheaper so unfortunately I didn’t think anything about it. I bought the baby and the breeder gave me his card for questions if needed which I have tried getting into contact with him several times and never got a response. Now in Sept, this baby has shed one time, eaten only twice and defecated after both meals (one meal was two weeks after I got him and the other was back in May). He’s now 7g and just refuses meal after meal even though I have him setup exactly how the breeder did and I’ve tried so many different things. Only thing I haven’t tried is toad scenting only cause I don’t have any toads in my area that I feel safe bringing inside and using to scent pinkie pieces. I have tried toad reptilinks but of course baby didn’t even look at them when left overnight. I’ve tried fully stripping everything and feeding that way, I’ve tried separate covered dark containers for a few hrs to eat, I’ve tried force feeding but hes so tiny I don’t feel comfortable doing that and I’ve tried leaving overnight. Tried no water until food day then with a wet pink piece, tried vet visit but the vet said they can just be picky and since the baby doesn’t have parasites or anything else medically wrong, that I just need to keep trying things. What else has worked for y’all tricolor breeders/owners. He’s coming up on a year old if not already a year old and I don’t want him to just starve
Not a tri-color owner but I am a Western Hoggie owner.
I had a very similar situation to you, bought a teeny little baby Hognose who wouldn’t eat for me.
The only thing that worked for me was to feed live day old pinky mice, it was the only thing my hoggie would eat rodent wise. So just to clarify in case I missed it while reading- did the breeder ever specify if the baby ate f/t or live? That might be the issue here, sometimes breeders will start off their hatchlings on live and thats what hatchlings end up preferring.
It took me a few months to get my hoggie on f/t but now at 5 years she easily takes f/t or pre-killed mice. You could also try variety foods and see if you can at least get some nutrition in her until you can get so e live pinkies. My hoggie personally loves hard boiled egg pieces with or without yolk, cut up chicken hearts or gizzards, tilapia…
Please don’t deprive any animal of fresh water for any amount of time, especially one that is so small and can very quickly dehydrate. I know it was an act of desperation to get your hoggie to eat but it is not a method that will work and may cause more harm than good…
Its good that you at least have the hoggie medically cleared so we know its not a result of illness. Definitely just an issue of getting the little one something that appetites it.
Only offer food 1x every 5-7 days to avoid stressing the baby.
How exactly is this setup done? What are the temps?
What’s the humidity like? They’re a high humidity species and won’t eat if it’s consistently low. Honestly before it becomes an emergency I would reach out to Glen Brooks at Glen Reptiles and ask for help. He keeps them very successfully. Be super nice, as breeders we get pumped for our time a lot by people who haven’t spent any money with us, but most of us are willing to help if you approach us politely.
Breeder said he was eating f/t meals and did take one f/t meal and the other meal with a toad reptilink. I only did the water thing one time but since it didn’t work I haven’t done it since. I only try things once a week but I did give a month break of trying to make sure I wasn’t stressing him out too much cause i’m definitely not trying every day or every other day lol, I definitely worried about stressing him out. I have him in a 5.5 gallon tank with half the enclosure (the right side) on a heatmat set at 83-85°F and the rest of the tank is 72-74°f with three little hides on paper towels with some Aspen to dig in on the left side but he mainly uses the hides. The water dish is on the left side too and I have some moist spaghnum under one of the hides for humidity since I’ve read tricolors like it a little more humid but my room stays around the 50s humidity normally so the tank is always like 44-58 humidity ranging through the day/night. I have all the sides of the tank covered except the front side so I can still see him and he does climb around throughout the day. I only hold him when I weigh him cause I don’t want to stress him out which is only maybe once a month I’ll try the egg and tilapia but yeah I’ll try to find the tiniest live pinkie my local feeder guy sells and see if he just wants live
The humidity in my room is on average in the 50s but lowers slightly through the day so his tank goes from 44-58 through the day/night and I do have a tiny bit of sphagnum in one of his hides. I don’t mean any harm to breeders of course, and I really liked the guy I got the snake from as he was super kind and didn’t seem upset at me asking him questions. It just sucked he told me to contact him and the times I did, he never once responded to me. Im definitely not trying to seem mean to breeders! Breeders are the only reason we have some of the coolest animals in the world as accessible as we do.
I have hatched 60 tricolors in the last 12 months and only 4 that would not eat thawed pinkies readily.
For those I would scent with Salmon juice or cut small slices of salmon with skin on. Last resort I keep a few tadpoles to scent. My friend keeps a live frog that he gets to urinate on the pinkies that works even better.
A gradient of heat and humidity is important.
I maintain a room temp of 72-80 and a warm side of 86.
My favorite article on the species is from Wellspring Herp
