Hogs are nice I had one that lived til about 12-13yrs old, kept him in about a 20 gal tank I think. I used sand with a hid box, or hollow half log. I kinda changed it around. From what I remember I kept his heat in the cage durning the day about 83-90, at night if it was cold I used a heating pad or heat strips about 1/4 of the cage. Used a regular light from the pet store, spectrum was fine. I'd feed him in his cage and never had an issue with compaction. Never use cedar or pine in a snake cage as they have 2 lungs but mainly use one lung, the other lung is useless or absent and they can get sick easy, especially if that crap cedar/pine gets wet. I used a bowl for water. Put the bowl on the other side of the cage away from the heating pad in case he knocks it over, otherwise he can burn himself do to heated water and glass/sand, mine (meadhead) used to like to hiss and flatten out and if I messed with him he'd roll over like an idiot lol. I had a male and he was a little over 2ft, females get bigger up to 3+. I ran my lights about 8-12hrs depending on season and how he felt each week/month. They like to hide and burrow, my breader friend used ripped up newspaper. I didn't like it when I used it, so I went the way they live in the real world sand etc. If a snakes stupid enough die when you spoil them then there's usually something else going on with them. Mine never bit, struck at me at times but no marks, all show. I had a 15ft albino Burmese that got pneumonia and at the time before shots like they have now a days I had to force a pill into his mouth using a lubbed up pencil/eraser end to shove it down till he got better. Talk about a fight, never again lol. Hogs are easy to bread, mix up food, pinkies, lizards if you can catch some etc. they like the hunt and it provides them a what I felt a better nutrition.
If you ever hear him wheezing out of the norm take him to a vet sooner than later, that'll save you money in the long run and they'll recover quicker. Snakes will be picky and won't eat for days or weeks depending on male/female, temp, light etc. don't worry as instinct kicks in. Just as chameleons, they'll eat sooner or later. Only the stong survive, if not as stated something else was going on. Watch out for mites, if you own many snakes always check them for mites then treat'm as that's stressing to them and spreads.
I took mine out as much as I could, gave him exercise and it built up his confidence/trust. I had finches I'd feed mine also. Most go by the book, but my theory was if they'd eat random food in real life there's no difference within a cage. You'll notice a change in the sheds and colors by changing up his food routine.
Good luck, I've owned everything from rubber boas to anacondas to emeral green tree boas. Mean and huge teeth, my fave was a rattlesnake named Shaky Jake that I had the renowned snake god Al Robbins remove his venom sacks, bite but wouldn't kill ya, he got used to being handled but was still scary as it's painful as the fangs are pretty long and if they hit a bone in the hand you'll cry lol.
