I have often heard people justify their husbandry techniques by making an analogy to what the wild version of the animal does. Every single one of these analogies have been exceptionally poor in my opinion. The simple fact remains that just because an animal does something in the wild does not mean that it's OK for it in captivity. Once you take any animal out of the wild and put it inside four glass walls, all bets are off, and the rules of the game changes instantly.

Another simple fact remains, a calorie limited diet has been proven to be better for an animal across the boards, whether it's a bird mammal reptile or amphibian. Animals that are overfed have significantly shortened lifespans as a result of kidney and liver problems.

Colby's sure is a good one. It is true that there would be an explosion of available food items at certain times of year, corresponding with the emergence of frogs from their larval stage. However, this is short-lived as many species trickle out of the ponds at a low rate after an initial surge. Colby used spadefoot toads as an example. I am doing amphibian research now and I only saw a surge of spadefoot's for about a week. Resources like this will come and go with almost no predictability, but what Colby has not taken into account is the long periods of fasting inbetween these resource explosions. I agree that hognoses are bound to come across a nest of mice, but realistically, how often does that happen in the course of one year? I think in this case the successful hunting of the species is being entirely overestimated. I can bet that a hognose only gets lucky like that only once a year.

So to justify feeding a hognose as often as Colby does, 52 weeks a year, is not supported by the natural phenomenon that the justification is based on. If you want to realistically simulate a natural diet, feeding several times a week with long periods of fasting would be ideal. This claim is supported by the scientific literature I've read on diet studies that had been performed on various reptiles and amphibians. When the stomach contents are broken down, the vast majority of the animals have empty stomachs. I doubt there are many snakes that constantly have food in their stomachs. If they did, then what would be the advantage of their ectothermy? Most ectothermic animals like reptiles and amphibians have the ability to shut down their digestive system in order to conserve energy until the next meal comes along.

If you actually cared about the health and well-being of your animal, you will not "powerfeed". There is absolutely no reason why an adult hognose cannot survive and maintain a natural growth rate by being fed one mouse a week.
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*Humans aren't the only species on earth... we just act like it.

".the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without
spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

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