Posted by:
JackAsp
at Mon Dec 22 00:33:30 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by JackAsp ]
I know they live in Canada. I know there is absolutely earthly reason why a western hognose should be impaired by a low of 72. But, mine would. I say try bumping the low end to 78-79, at least on the bottom. In fact, even if the bottom of the cool end is in the low 80s, as long as you have nice deep sbstrate so it will be a little cooler near the surface, that's fine. If Bebe is any indication, hognoses do not know they aren't tropical. Also, the warm end can be up into the 90s. if you're worried this is too high, deeper substrate gives more thermal choices, but include warmer and the snake will use it. A lot.
Mine's light is set for 16 hours of day, eight hours of night. She spends so much time buried it's hard t believe she even cares, but she absolutely always comes to the surface for at least half an hour when the light clicks on, so apparently she cares enough to base her sleep schedule on it.
More substrate is better than more hiding places. The trick is learning to find them without messing up all their tunnels. Bebe will generally come up to see what's going on if I poke a finger in and touch her, so just gently poke, and then wait, when you want the snake. Odds are there'll be a little head up there soon enough. if you try to pull the snake out, they might just want to sqirm away. let them feel active, not reactive.
You can include hide boxes too, if you want, but if there's enough substrate I doubt if the snake will care about what's on top.
Don't bother offering food at night. They're diurnal. Mine ate whenever I fed her until recently, then got fussy this fall. it scared m for a whil, but I found that she's most receptive in the morning, and that even though she was raised eating outside of her cage, often reaching into the bucket and swallowing away while still in my hand, right now if I want her to eat on schedule, this is what I do:
1. I know in advance what day I'll be offering food, and I thaw the mouse in the refrigerator ahead of time. I wake up around the time her light clicks on, and drop it in hot water. (Although, actually, she eats two mice per meal. Yours won't be yet.) If you tried offering food today and it didn't work, wait two days before you try this, even if the snake seems like they might eat tomorrow. In other words, you as well as the snake need to be active, not reactive. Your snake obviously isn't feeling enough hunger to be begging, so setting the mood properly is up to you. I haven't found that it matters if I do this a couple of hours after "sunrise," but if I wait even until mid-day her feeding response is much less.
2. When the lights click on, I put a placemat in the tank, to keep substrate from sticking to wet mice. My Madgascan prefers them blow-dried, which stinks up the whole living room, but my American prefers wet. A sour cream lid or something like that works perfect. I use one of those big shallow peanut can lids. I put the mice on the placemat, and start poking into the substrate until I make contact. Sometimes I keep my finger in there and pet her slowly, but I doubt she cares. Then, I wait until she has her head up and out.
3. If she doesn't almost immediately start scoping out the food, I pick up one mouse with tongs, stroke a litle bit of warm water onto her snout with it (a trick I stole from this forum) and then put it back on the placemat. I do not try to keep waving it at her to make her strike, I just stroke one time to make sure that she knows it's there, and then put it back where it belongs. Now, though, she's learned to not only sniff around for mice but also look for the bright red peanut can lid when I poke her that early in the day, so getting her attention is kind of a non-issue.
4. I leave the room, and watch TV or go on the computer or whatever for five minutes. Sometimes when I check back she's still eating, so I repeat Step Four.
5. I remove the completely empty placemat from her cage.
This technique works for me and does not require braining, scenting, or anything of that nature. Once in a while I wake her up and she turns out to be going into shed, so one of the other snakes gets her mice, but otherwise she eats great again. I assume in the spring she'll again be fine with eating outside the cage, in the late afternoon, with a mariachi band playing right next to her, but some snakes are a little harder to motivate during the winter in most homes. There is no harm in you including those tricks that I don't use; they won't harm the overall system. If you combine a hundred techniques, and only one of them was necessary, but the snake starts eating, I'd say that still counts as a win.
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0.1 1987 Coastal Carpet (Boots)
0.1 2006 Western Hognose (Bebe)
0.1 age unknown Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 2005 White-Banded Sheen Skink (Minerva)
1.0 2006 Northern Diamondback (Queequeg)
1.0 2006 Madagascan Speckled (Sigmund)
1.0 2008 Bull (Winkle)
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RE: Infant Western Hognose Not/ Never Eating - JackAsp, Mon Dec 22 00:33:30 2008