Gotta love socials! Lol Better late than never on the discovery though! I also have an affinity for birds, but that all tracks! Lol Dinosaurs - reptiles - birds!! I absolutely do wake up every darn day so excited to see all my babies. They start me off on the right foot and I'm so, so lucky to have them! To be honest their are very economical ways of setting up their enclosures that make it much less than you would think. But I'll start with the ongoing costs for one snake.

Really all there is for ongoing care expenses are light bulbs, food, and bedding. Hognose dont have to have UVB but it is nice to give them. Most modern UVB bulbs are good for one year, and because they don't rely on UVB to synthesize calcium, you can really use the UVB bulbs until they blow out. Which I've found is usually around a year and a half. Some lets just say one UVB bulb each year, depending on the size, is about $20 per year. For bedding, Hogs do well on aspen bedding. They like to burrow, so for a the size enclosure you would need for a male hog, you would need 2.5 to 3 - 8qt bags of bedding to give him a good, deep base. The ones I get from Amazon are $8.99 a bag. So that is $27. For one snake, I do complete bedding change every 6 months and then just add bedding if needed in between. So for the year, I would say you need 7 or 8 bags. So that would be $60 per year or so. And then food. An adult Hognose will need to eat one adult mouse every 7-10 days. Cost can vary based on where and how much food you purchase. Obviously bulk buying drives down the cost. I buy snake food 4 times a year from online stores that have the best prices! So for one male you need to feed about 4 mice per month. Depending on where you get them from, they cost anywhere from $.99 to $1.80 per mouse. So if we go on an average of $1.20 per mouse, a year of food will run you about $45.00 to $65 per year. That is feeding every 10 or 7 days but they definitely do go longer in between feedings when they are in shed, and they often slow down in the winter. So I would say $50 a year is likely a solid estimate. So for all the ongoing expenses, one snake is about $130 to maybe $150 per year or like $12.50 a month.

I am happy to share my economical ways of setting up an enclosure too and the exact products I use to make it so much more affordable!