I am new to hogs (I have a Western hatchling) and snakes in general, so I have several questions here. This article talks about fatty liver disease in reptiles in general, and yet it seems to be taken for granted by Colchisine and evilelvis that this is particularly a concern with hogs. Now my first question is -- are Western hogs very difficult to keep with regards to feeding? I am still gathering as much info as I can and am now wondering what I need to watch out for. My understanding from what I have read so far is that the Western Hog eats rodents in the wild, and the Southern and Eastern eat amphs, but that they sometimes can be switched. Do Westerns stop eating for periods of time as well?

Then you say, evilelvis, "the ones i lost this year were all great eaters, no periods of fasting at all, even when gravid." And that makes me think of something else -- could the cause of fatty liver disease in some cases at least be simply a matter of overeating, period?

The reason I say this is that I am just now reading my way through "The Art of Keeping Snakes" with which you are probably familiar, by Philippe de Vosjoli who is an authority on snake keeping for many, many years. Some people might have read his book when they started out just like I am doing now, but forgot since what he says on feeding because it was drowned out by the general consensus that is repeated everywhere - pet stores, snake books, forums, etc. to feed once a week (colubrids, anyway). So forgive me for quoting him somewhat extensively here, I don't mean to insult anybody. But I am very interested in what your opinion is about this:

"The standard feeding schedule in the snake-keeping hobby is once a week. If a snake hibernates for three to four months out of the year, this means that a snake requires 30 -46 meals a yar. However, many vertebrate eating snakes in the wild survive on a fraction of this amount; with most species it is possible to keep them in good condition with meals every 10 - 14 days, or 22 - 30 times a year. One effect of a reduced feeding regime is that snakes take longer to grow and mature and tend to produce fewer eggs per clutch. If your primary interest is to breed large numbers of snakes then definitely stay on a once-a-week feeding schedule with females of most snakes. Studies have shown that the breeding potential of female snakes is directly related to their relative weight/energy reserves. On the other hand, leaner, more slowly grown snakes are more active and do not suffer from obesity or breeding problems such as egg-binding. They may also end up living longer than the stuffed sausages that are now increasingly common in our hobby." Gulp. As I said, I am new to this, and I haven't really noticed this as I have no point of reference, really. He goes on to say:

"I find that the captive-raised snakes I purchase appear fat, almost bloated, so I maintain them on a reduced feeding regimen to allow them to gradually lose weight and achieve optimal condition. To determine when to feed your snake, try waiting until it shows the high activity level associated with hunting for at least one day. Remember, however, that most snakes are crepuscular and nocturnal, so this high activity level is often observable only at night....

... Because my regimen is one-third to one-half the standard weekly regimen, snakes raised under this schedule take almost twice as long to reach sexual maturity as 'power-fed' specimens. With some species we have conducted experiments where snakes were fed every two to three weeks. They required up to three times longer to mature than snakes kept under an intense weekly feeding regimen. These slow-grown snakes tend to more closely match the maturity time and growh rates of snakes in the wild."

He goes on to say "If you provide a snake with everything it needs all the time - including food - the results will be inactivity and obesity."

The downside of this is that "hungry snakes tend to be more active and more prone to striking and biting."

Perhaps it all comes down to this: do we want tame pets (tame as in sluggish, and possibly ill), or animals whose behavior resembles more closely to what it would be like in its natural habitat-- which might also translate into "lean and mean".

Just as a reminder - he advocates naturalistic habitats for snakes where they really do have the space to exhibit hunting behavior. To keep a ravenous snake in a shoe box ready to jump in your face everytime you open the lid would of course be silly.

What do you think of all this? Could fatty liver disease be related to overeating and inactivity? If we draw parallels between what is going on in the human population in terms of obesity and what seems to be happening in captive snakes (which I wasn't aware of until now), one has to wonder... According to the article, a confused metabolism might be to blame in some cases (just as extreme on and off dieting in humans can be detrimental and only leading to more weight gain), but apparently, as in evilelvis's snakes, perhaps overeating is the culprit of prematurely going into snake heaven.

Any thoughts?

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