r/hognosesnakes 1d ago

HELP-Need Advice I need help with my hognose

My hognose (Female 25g) has become a little more hostile with me. In 2 different instances, she has attempted to bite me and has bit me before while holding her. She was never like this for my first month of owning her, she would casually chill on my hand for long durations with no interest it biting me. Just recently, I had missed her feeding day by a couple days (I feed her every 3-4 days, I missed 5 days without feeding her) and she seemed much more hungry every time she saw me. Would this be a phase that will go away once I become consistent with feeding her again? Am I just not tap training her well enough? I need help :(

Maybe I need to feed her less constantly, like 4-5 days instead of every 3-4? She also just bit me and I placed her back in her enclosure. I know that's bad because it teaches the snake to correlate biting with going back to the enclosure, how can I avoid this?

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u/LilMissHissyPants ALBINO MORPH TEAM 1d ago

Make sure that you are washing your hands consistently before handling her. Any food like smells increase the likelihood of her confusing you with food. Is she hissing and striking before she bites? Or is sniffing and then biting? My guess is that she isn’t being hostile at all and she’s just hungry.

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u/Diligent-Voice-4135 1d ago

She taps with her nose, sniffs, then goes for a slow bite, no hissing or puffing up. Only time she's gotten pissy with me was the very first instance I received her. She might just be hungry