Like I said in a previous post "we only have 1 year of experience with hogs".



No worries. I only have about 7 years experience while some of my peers have 10 years. Regardless of any of that, what matters most is not only what you learn but what you apply as well as what you can offer to the community in terms of real based experience, not conjecture and opinions based on nothing. To me, the worst part of any hobby are those people that gain their so-called knowledge from others or whatever they glean from the net/forums and then just blindly regurgitate any of it without any substance of their own. This of course can be dangerous as many others might be prone to believing the convictions of a person that is just regurgitating unsubstantiated information.



I'm sure in another year or two, you'll have more than enough experience and anecdotes to share with the rest of us!



We got her from BHB and I've heard Brian say (and I cannot quote him) something about it not being of any advantage to brumate sub-adults or those not of size or age to breed. A few breeders we have talked to do not brumate at all. Some of them are very successful too.





I am one of those breeders that no longer brumate and have, what I believe, fairly decent success in breeding and raising hognose. I originally brumated my snakes but when the temperatures up here exceeded what I felt was safe enough to do so, I stopped the practice and afterwards discovered that I had pretty much the same rate of productivity from my snakes as I did when I was brumating them and with no apparent physicaly or behavioral changes.



The thing is right after we got her she ate like a champ. That is the puzzling part to us.



Well, you might find that some hognose will do this from time to time usually with no ill effects but that doesn't mean you shouldn't continue to monitor the overall weight and health of the snake. The most important part though is not to overreact which, in all honesty, you might be doing right now. If the snake is maintaining it's weight and appears healthy and active, then all you can do is offer it food on a periodic schedule, like once a week. If the snake starts to lose significant weight, I'm thinking anything over 15-20%, then you might want to consider taking it to the vet before taking drastic measures like forcefeeding it without having any experience with forcefeeding.



One of the drawbacks with forcefeeding a snake that doesn't need it, especially when using methods like forcing a large food item down it's throat, is it can actually turn the snake off from eating for longer periods which can then prove very detrimental to the overall health of the snake.



Said something about a pinky pump.... Are you famailiar with what that is?



I am intimately familiar with pinky pumps as I own one and have used it many times. Here is a picture I took tonight of a pinky pump (on the left), a syringe with gavage needle (in the middle) and of course a day old hatchling to show as a comparison in terms of size.











Frank said: I think a better choice is a pinky pump. As snakes are not going to be feeding on metal or plastic at a later time.



First off, I don't know what he's rambling about snakes feeding on metal or plastic, just more static noise as far as I'm concerned.



In regards to recommending a pinky pump though, Frank recommends using one, I do not. What Frank's experience using one is or whether he even owns one, I have no idea, but here's some reasons why I don't recommend using a pinky pump.



#1 Pinky pumps are often times very expensive and difficult to find, especially replacement parts. I paid around $60 for mine.



#2 Pinky pumps require a bit of maintenance. They must be thoroughly cleaned after every use which kind of goes with saying but as some of them contain many parts like mine which breaks down into 6 basic parts, nozzle, liquifier, washer, glass tube, housing and plunger assembly. The problem with mine is, the tube is actually glass, so you have to be extremely careful not to break it and also very careful when putting the plunger assembly into as you can actually chip off edges of the glass tube which could end up going into the snake. Also, cleaning a pinky pump is nasty business as the main principle of a pinky pump is to basically "liquify" pinkys so that they are easier to consume and digest but the problem is, what is left in the tube and pushed into the liquifier is all of the skin, bones and internal organs that didn't manage to get liquified. So you have to take all of that stuff out and it's not only grisly and smelly, but it's kind of hard to pull all of that stuff out to be able to clean the pump.



#3 Pinky pumps can pump only a very limited amount of food. The problem with pinky pumps is that they usually only hold 3-5 pinkies (depending on the size of the pinkies) and when used, all you are pushing is basically all of the fluids from the pinkies and barely any of the other body parts which really accounts for a lot of nutrients as well. Using 4 pinkies, you might be lucky if you really get the equivalent of 2 pinkies worth of food into the snake. Quite wasteful if you ask me.



#4 Pinky pumps, in my experienced opinion, are not suited for small snakes such as hatchlings or under 20 grams as the nozzle is quite large and requires more force than necessary to push it down the throat of the snake.



Pinky pumps do have their use, but from my own experience, they are of extremely limited use and based on the amount of waste of food items and the ultimate care and cost of having one, there are far better tools and methods out there.



One tool that I have adopted and been successful with using for many years now is a gavage needle used with disposable syringes. The nice thing about gavage needles is that you can get them in a variety of sizes and lengths. Unfortunately, they can be as difficult to obtain as most pet stores don't carry them, but you can order them from some vets as well as online veterinary supply sites. Gavage needles can also be expensive costing anywhere from $20-40. Gavage needles usually have very small inside diameter tubes, so the food source must be very liquified or else they will clog. There might be gavage needles out there that might have bigger ID tubes, I just don't have at that size.



So there you go! I hope you and others find any of this helpful.
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Troy Rexroth

Rextiles

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