What do hognose snakes eat?

Hognose snake diet

In the wild, hognose snakes can eat toads and amphibians. As pets, hognose snakes are not unique in what they eat. Hognose snakes are unique in the way that they evolved alongside their poisonous meals so that they're not affected the way other snakes might be.

As a pet, feed them like you would feed any other common snake.

• Pinkie mice: newborn mice (usually frozen/thawed). This is the standard feeder for most pet hognoses once they’re big enough.

• Fuzzy mice: slightly older/larger mice, used as the snake grows; they’re the next step up from pinkies.

• Chicken hearts or pieces: often used for newly hatched or picky eaters before they transition to rodents.

Feeder size

The challenge when they are first hatched, is that they are quite small. You can cut up chicken hearts to give them appropriately sized food. They also might be timid without good skills for hunting their meal with confidence. Over time, baby snakes seem to get the hang of your feeding pattern. When they notice the signs of what usually happens before you feed them, they'll start ramping up behaviors that indicate they're ready for a meal.

Chicken hearts as feeders

In this photo above, an adult female hognose snake is eating a whole chicken heart. You can get chicken hearts from the meat section in grocery stores. This is convenient in a pinch if you run out of frozen feeders. It's also helpful for picky eaters, since they can be more attracted to the scent.

Common frozen feeder

As they get bigger, you can store frozen pinkies and thaw them when you need to feed your hungry little hisser. You can often find these feeder mice at reptile expose, in person, so that you can actually see the size of them to get a feel for what your snake might be capable of eating.

Consider interacting with your hognose with and without food, so they don't just associate your company exclusively with food. They might confuse you for a snack.

Young and shy eaters

If you have a very young hognose snake, who is shy about eating, it's possible that they might do better if their food is offered to them under hide or in a part of the enclosure where they feel safe. This five month old hognose snake was not aggressive, like the rest of its siblings and took a while to warm up to the idea of eating. But the pinky was left outside the opening of the black hide and after smelling it for about 20 seconds it then ate the meal.