Eastern Hognose

Question
We caught an small 6 inch eastern hognose, in our driveway 3 weeks ago on a really warm day.  Our intention was to release him.  However, it turned cold two days later.  We have tried to offer him a small frog, pollywog, even pinkies and he will not eat.  We even tried to let him go and he did not want to get out of his home.  We tipped it over and left if outside for 3 hours and brought it back in, only to find him still in his home.  He is really friendly.  If he is hiding he comes out to see us when he hears the us talking.  He has only hissed once and will only flatten his head when I put the pinkie in front of him.  What do I do?  I do not want him to die.

Answer
Well you have 2 choices.  Forcibly release him or find him some small toads.  Easterns eat almost exclusively toads.  Hope this helps, they are wonderful animals and not hard to keep as long as you can find enough toads.  My advice is catch as many as you can and freeze them fro when you can find any!  Sometimes you can rub the pinky on a toad and get them to take it, but I would not switch totally to mice they don't seem to do well w/o toads.