How to Introduce Pinkies to Hognose Snakes

Video Transcript

"Now, for snakes that don't accept pinkies right away, I'm going to show you a way trick on feeding them. What you're going to need is a volunteer toad. I love reptiles and amphibians and I hate killing amphibians, especially little toads, but your really need one if you're going to keep Hognose Snakes. This toad is dead, I keep it frozen and then when I'm done using it, actually I just refreeze it again. I continually use it, that way I don't have to go out and kill more toads. But, what I do, first of all, is I'll take this toad, and I'll use forceps to keep my scent off of it, I'll hold the pink and take this toad and rub its scent all over the pinkie. See there's a little bit of stuff coming out and that's perfect. Again, this pinkie is scented with the toad. Now, what I can do, too, is get this Eastern Hognose Snake excited first before I feed her. So what I can do, you have to be kind of quick with this, is put the toad in front of her, let her get a whiff of the toad. See, she's interested, she's hungry. She has her mouth open, so she's hungry. Now, you get her in this mode, she wants to eat. Now throw this pink in front of her that smells like the toad, and then boom. Once they get into that feeding mode, their hungry. You present them with that toad you just have to be quick, make sure you don't give the snake the toad then you're going to have to find another toad. So, that's the best way to do it. Keep a toad, keep it frozen, thaw it out when you need it and then refreeze it and that toad will last you for a very, very long time. Then, eventually, the snake will just start accepting pinkies and you won't have to worry about scenting it with the toad at all. With adult Hognose Snakes, you're going to want to feed them every ten to fifteen days or so, just about every two weeks. For these babies, once you switch them over to pinks, pinkie mice, again, are fattening so you're not going to want to feed them as much. Generally, I feed them one pinkie about once a week."