Spicy Hogs

12/10/2024

Friendly reminder that pets are NOT surprise gifts. If you are buying an animal for someone, please confirm that they:
- have the necessary housing and essentials to care for the animal.
- are mentally prepared to have the animal in their life.
- are familiar with the care the animal will need.

Too many animals suffer from neglect or are surrendered to rescues because they were given as gifts to people who weren't prepared.

If you want to give an animal as a gift, communicate with the recipient and be prepared to assist with care for the animal.

11/24/2024

Three of the five spicy babies from this year are now up on MorphMarket! Thanks for everyone's patience! Please do not comment asking about them. Either message me privately here of through MM.

11/19/2024

Hey everybody! Sorry I haven't posted in a while! Phew! It is hard work having kiddo and relocating. I have been focusing on basic animal (and baby) care and haven't had the time for much else.

Thank you for bearing with me and welcome to all our new followers! Keep your eyes peeled for a post this weekend announcing availability of all 2024 babies!

09/19/2024

No good deed goes unpunished. Lux LOVES to climb, so I built a rockwall for her. She burrowed through the paint, grout, and foam and made a total mess! Silly snek!

08/24/2024

Sorry to be a downer folks. I just wanted to inform everyone that the two hognose hatchling with the mouth deformities have been gently sent across the rainbow bridge by our favorite vet.

It was a difficult decision to make but neither snake was likely to be able to live a normal life without many precautions to prevent infection. I would have worried like crazy no matter who they ended up living with.

The remaining babies will be available in the coming months. Two have proven to be consistent eaters and have great personalities.

Thank you to everyone for support and those who expressed interest in giving a special home to one of the two special snakes.

07/31/2024

The heavy responsibility of ethical breeding. Every word is true and something to consider carefully for anyone who wished to breed hognoses.

🫶🏻 So let’s be real for a minute. This post is for anybody who wants to breed hoggies. Lemme tell you, breeding is hard. It is HARD WORK. Anybody who wants to breed needs to consider the good, the bad and the ugly 🐍

From the very start, pairing is risky. Females can attack, injure or even eat a male. I’ve had the first two happen, thankfully I personally haven’t had a male be eaten. But I know breeders who have, more than once in fact.

Then there is the possibility of the females either not taking at all, laying slugs or becoming egg bound. All of which isn’t great news. I’ve had all happen, multiple times. I’ve lost females who became egg bound. It’s more common in first time mummy hogs.

And when you’re due eggs - you can’t just bu**er off on days out or weekends away or on holiday. You gotta stay at home and you make sure you’re around for when they lay. Cause female hoggies can and will eat their eggs if left alone for them for a long time. They get super hungry after laying. And if they start laying just before you go to bed? Better get a few middle of the night alarms set to check up on them!

The next stage if you get fertile eggs is incubation, you can lose eggs during the incubation process. You have to ensure the substrate isn’t too damp or too dry, keep an eye on the temperature and humidity levels. And even if you do everything right, you can still lose eggs. I’ve lost half of a clutch for no apparent reason before. You can also lose females who have laid and then refuse to eat afterwards. It takes a lot out of them. I’ve had that happen twice in my 12 years of breeding them.

So now it’s time for the eggs to hatch. You can have babies who don’t have egg teeth and don’t pip. Deformities. Extreme or mild. Eyes missing, kinks, conjoined. Organs on the outside. I’ve had all of these at least once over the years. And you have to humanely cull the babies who will not survive or have any quality of life. As a responsible hobbiest breeder, it’s your responsbility to ensure babies that you bought into this world don’t suffer. It’s unavoidable. And not for the faith of heart.

If you managed to avoid all of that and hatch healthy little babies.. they could spend weeks refusing to eat. Months even. I’ve literally wanted to pull my hair out at times with some of my non feeders. Losing a few each year as they fail to thrive. And I spend hours upon hours each week getting everybody watered, fed and cleaned.

I’m not saying this to put anybody off. I just hope it highlights some of the challenges of being a hobbiest breeder. I respect any breeder who does what I do year after year. It genuinely consumes your life. But if you get everything right, which gets easier with time and experience, it can be one of the most rewarding things in the world.

To make project hoggies and spend years working towards a goal morph. There is nothing more rewarding than doing the hard work and achieving your goals. It’s amazing. But the road is bumpy. So if you wanna travel it, get your sat nav and hold on tight! ✌🏻🐍

07/24/2024

Well.... the last egg has hatched. Fae and Puddles' baby has a really cool pattern! Unfortunately he/she appears to have a small deformity also. The left side of the face looks slightly shrunken. There is an eye, but it appears partially covered with scales.

I chose to bump up the incubation temperature by 1.5 degrees this year. I don't know if that's the cause, but I will be dropping it back down to 81 next year, just in case.

07/23/2024

Photographed and tubbed up all Tira and Mire's babies. They are all normal 100% axanthic. Unfortunately the owl one that got her mom's bright reds also has a jaw deformity. We will see if she is able to eat, but she is going to live on paper towel instead of aspen shavings for obvious reasons.

07/18/2024

It is so cool when a "window" in an egg reveals the baby inside! All the babies in Tira's clutch have emerged!

07/12/2024

We've got babies! At day 51 these little normals are starting to pip. These belong to Tira and Mire so most likely all will be normal het axanthic. Can't wait to see if the reds pop!

06/19/2024

I've been holding off posting about Fae's clutch. She laid 3 viable eggs and a few slugs back on June 1st. One of the eggs didn't make it and one looks good but has no veins developing (left one). Anyone ever seen that before?

If that one doesn't start developing soon, we will be down to one. This clutch was a spur-of-the-moment pairing anyway so even one egg is more than I originally planned for.

06/12/2024

The last baby of 2023 is heading home today! This beautiful little axanthic conda girl is so sweet.

Thank you everyone for making my first breeding season a success! Now to wait for the 2024 eggs to hatch!

05/30/2024

*CLAIMED*

Our little problem-eater is now ready to ✈️. Last baby of 2023, making way for the coming 2024 babies.

Western Hognose Morph: Axanthic 100% Het Albino, S*x: male, juvenile, Birth: 2023, Weight: 16g, Prey: frozen/thawed frozen/thawedmouse, Price: $300, Seller: Spicy Hogs, Last Updated: 05/30/24, Animal ID: LLxDM2023-1.

05/22/2024

They've arrived! Judge Tira laid her clutch over night and is now enjoying some pampering. She laid 6 good eggs and 4 slugs. Unpopular opinion, I prefer small clutches. Tira was paired with Detective Mire, axanthic, and I look forward to seeing if she might be het axanthic. Regardless, their babies are going to be beautiful!!!

05/17/2024

Emperor Blaze says "Thanks for the mice. More please!"

05/11/2024

Judge Tira just finished her prelay shed and it looks like we are going to have some pearls deposited soon! Can't wait! Commander Fae is not far behind!

05/04/2024

Judge Tira is being a little extra derpy lately. She seems to be enjoying basking with her chin in the air. Maybe she wants to get an even tan!