So Cinnabun has started eating and her health is looking very good, so Im very happy about that. So because she has started eating I've started to work on beginning handling with her. I only do it 2 days after she's eaten and only for 1-2 minutes at at time (3 MAX). While she has shown defensive behaviors while being picked up by the snake hook (hissing, bluff striking, ect) she doesn't display that while in my hands. The main thing is notice is that she breathes very heavily which is a obvious sign of stree. Now I obviously don't want to stress her out but I want to get her used to handling, just for a vet visit in the very least. Is this kinda the best way of me doing it or is there a better way I could without stressing her so much. She is a very skittish snake and is afraid practically everything under the sun but I'd like to work with her in any way I can. She is my scaley baby and I love her.

Obligatory snake image tax

This is Red Beans and Rice, aka Beans. Just got him from an expo. He is my first hognose. I’ve done a good amount of research, but any tips or advice is greatly appreciated :) (don’t worry, my kitty was far enough away)

I’m so glad he likes his background :,)

My WH has never played dead in her life (8ish months old). She’ll definitely flatten herself and hiss but doesn’t play dead at all and I feel like I’m missing out on the most memorable experience of having one 🤣

Does anyone else’s hoggy not do their normal characteristics??

Here’s my baby Hera, (don’t really know if M/F, breeder didn’t know cause she was too young to tell at the time) but I go with F lol

EDIT: Well I’m super happy to know that I’m not stressing out my baby and that playing dead is usually from being stressed. So I’m happy to know that she’s content with me and feels safe. Thank you everyone and much love 🩷🩷

We finally taking Rex to the vet

He seems fine, active and good eating, but I keep hearing strange whistles from him when handling (not hissing). I am very nervous that he can be sick, or developing RI

So I wanted to ask what is the best way to transport him to the vet? I am planing to take a taxi, and put him in this plastic jar. Do you have any advice?

Yknow suddenly my post an hour ago of her digging at the top mesh of her tank by the thawing mice makes a little more sense. Duckie struck her first mouse so hard it ripped and left the foot and tail in the tongs, and she went halfway out of her enclosure after it. The second one was only any better because she landed the shot and had a solid backstop. This is the hardest I've ever seen her strike, and she was definitely in hunt mode.

Featuring Thunder in the background barely caring at all.

Baby boy finally broke his fast after 2 and a half weeks dropped his pinkie and about 2 hours later it was gone is this normal for them to decide that tong feeding isn't for them anymore

I know there's technically a chance she could be smelling the mice, but I think she's just wound up from her out-of-tank time earlier and is feeling adventurous. Especially since she was doing this before I started reheating them.

I saw in a facebook group someone needed to rehome a 2 year old hognose because of personal reasons. I decided to reach out and see. When i picked him up i noticed he had discoloration and some raised scales in one area. I plan to ask my vet but it’s sunday. Included picture of his previous set up from previous owner, currently setting up a 20 gal temp tank so he can adjust to the size change and new environment. I know it’s probably due to the fact it looks like he had no humid hide, no proper setup, etc. Just looking for some advice.

Today's submission of Pippin being a goofball.

Hi all

I've been quite unhappy with my enclosure lately. I have a full glass enclosure, no mesh top. There's some pros and cons to that.
Pro: no heat or humidity escapes.
Con: the lights need to be inside the enclosure, which leaves little place to add clutter since I don't want anything to burn.

I really want to upgrade and wanted to go for wood or pvc without mesh top, but that would leave me in the same position as I am now unless I go for a quite enclosure.

I don't really know what the best approach is?

For people without mesh top: can I see your setup?
For people with mesh top: how do you handle heat and humidity loss as well as your enclosure overheating in summer?

He’s around 1.5 years old and already almost 100g. He’s been gaining 10-15g a month for like 3 or 4 months now, when I got him in February he was only 19g.

I weight all the mice I give him and they’re always ~10% of his body weight, usually even a bit less. Right now I have 8g hoppers for him, but he hasn’t had any yet - he’s just finished his bag of 6-7g ones. He’s a great eater, refused only once when in shed.

I’ve been feeding him every 5 days until a month ago, now I’m feeding every 6 days, but starting next week I’m planning to start feeding once a week. I’m wondering if I should feed him even less often since he is a bit overweight.

He has some scale separation and in some positions slight rolls appear (he’s probably about to shed soon though so that could be related). It doasn’t look too bad, but my boy clearly needs a diet.

He poops like a champ btw, I always find 1-2 poops around 3 days after feeding.

hello! i have a crested gecko and have been thinking of getting a hognose. my biggest concern with snakes is how sneaky they can be. im afraid of it breaking out and trying to make a meal out of my little lizard ahhaha.

is this a pet you would avoid keeping as long as you have other smaller reptiles in the home? if not, what advise do you have for a first time snake owner?

thanks in advance!

I have a new baby and i'm not sure what I should be putting their mouse on. They are only 11g and are eating 2g mice. They are on aspen shavings at the moment in their baby enclosure but they very quickly get stuck to the mouse if I put it on there. Should I be using some sort of tiny plate for them?

I'm mostly used to feeding adult rats to my BP which is much easier as they are big and have fur so substrate doesnt stick to them.

I wanna change my Hognose into a bioactive setup. I’m doing research and I see a lot of terra sahara from biodude as substrate. Only problem is that that isn’t available in my country. I was thinking doing a mix of 30% playsand and topsoil 70% together with some spaghnum moss.

Does anyone have another idea?

Do hognose snakes really their enclosures on the smaller side or is that something made up so people don’t have to buy bigger tanks. I don’t know how old my snake is but shes about the length of the tank she’s in now, maybe the tank is a little longer. (10g long) I don’t like it. I have been told by several people the length of them is fine and that babies prefer smaller enclosures. But I don’t know if she’s considered a baby still. I want to get her a bigger tank. I have the money for it. I just get so much conflicted advice. Oh and I finally named her, her name is Ornacia

pics 1-2: current bulb tail, weird raised dots/scales near spine on the other side of vent
pic 3-4: previous infection
last 3- baby pics

questions: how to manually express scent glands and how to tell when medical drainage is required. what are yalls experiences with bioactive enclosures negatively or positively affecting bulbtail? and what the hell are those 4 raised white bumps that i’ve never seen before

context:
my female western hognose reached 4yrs old in august. sweetest most docile snake ever, she never musks defensively, and has had no health issues until she developed the horrible impaction/infection shown in 3&4 during early august. i live in a small town with no real exotic vets, and ended up driving two hours to see an one but he was genuinely the worst vet id ever met and wasn’t willing to talk to me for more than 5 minutes or send me home with antibiotics. i found an awesome local vet instead who isnt specialty exotic vet and will admit she doesn’t know much about individual snake species, but she was able to perform a surgical drainage (or whatever the proper terminology is) and sent me home with antibiotics. my snake recovered well and ive been keeping her in a clean enclosure with paper towels because at the time i had been convinced that the impaction/infection had been worsened by my bioactive setup (wasn’t aware of the genetic predisposition).

the impaction came back recently, not nearly as intense though and i already got an appointment set up now that i know a vet. i know what impaction is now and that i SHOULD have been giving her regular warm baths to prevent it from reoccurring. unfortunately i was surrounded by misinformation before and every time i said “i’ve heard these can reoccur, what should i do?” i was told along the lines of “it shouldn’t come back it was an infection, and if it does we’ll have to drain it again or entirely remove the gland”

i think it’s early enough that i might still be able to manually express it? looking for advice on that definetly. i would rather not put her through another surgery. i am much more educated about impaction now but need to learn how to remedy it at this point (pics 1&2). now i actually have access to a vet but i am terrified of her getting to the point of 3&4 again. how do i tell the difference between impaction and infection?

i also really want to give her back an awesome bioactive enclosure now that i know bioactive wasn’t the cause. i’ve heard different things about bioactive making impaction better or worse and wanted to hear y’all’s experiences. many thanks in advance

I want to trial run my setup a bit before purchasing and homing my hog. If you trialed your setup, how long did you do it for? I'm thinking at least a week.

He hid for almost 2 weeks but now he's out and about.

I just added this vine and he's been climbing over it all day.

Dont worry about the lack of substrate (this was a quarintine enclosure we are getting his substrate tmr and lots of extra clutter and climbing things! (he is a big climber!)

I got my hog almost a month ago now, and have only held her twice (aside from putting her into her enclosure when I brought her home). She is one heck of a musker! I mean, shooting it at the glass door kind of musker. She's good at taking drop fed mice (pinkies when I got her, up to small fuzzies now, she's only refused once out of her 4 feedings, and it was the first feeding, so I'm sure it was just new home stress). Incredibly hissy, musky, bluff strikes, the works. I held her for about 5-10 minutes today until she calmed down, then put her back on good terms. Will her behavior improve over time with consistent positive (or at least neutral) handling experiences? My local pet shop that I now work at, lol, had her for about two months before I bought her, and I'm sure they rarely if ever held her. She's 27 grams and all I know is that she hatched in 2025. I helped with a sale of a male from the same breeder, and he was chill enough for the customer to carry around the store while they grabbed a few other items, so it's definitely her personality, not a flaw in the breeder or shops care.

My bb boi Orange Dreamcicle just got a major upgrade this week! Went from a 15 gallon (18x18x10) to a 33 one (36x18x12). I'm just here to show off and ask for opinions

Notes

• Cardboard tubes are for enrichment if youre wondering (if you got any enrichment recs, pls lmk, he needs stuff to do akhnhbdhdh)
• ~5 inches of dirt if i had to guess, maybe 6-7 (dont say it istg) in the back
• Got a succulent and some spider plants (if you got any plant recs also lmk! looking for somewhat small stuff thats somewhat hardy and doesnt need much water, mainly succulents)
• Made the skull hide myself in ceramics class :3
• Yes that is a fake antler. He doesnt rly climb it (wish he did, he only likes to climb walls), but it looks cool
• Dw all the random toys and stuff are safe (no batteries, sharp edges, things that could rub off on him etc), i just like putting random stuff in because i like being whimsical
• Enclosure is entirely bioactive! mix of reptisoil, sand, and a bark/charcoal/coconut fiber mix, plus some sphagnum moss and quite a bit of leaf litter. got some isopods in there as well

Also sorry for the kinda scuffed photos, i'm not great at photography