Gregg, I again will ask, what is your(the group) problem? You say, I talk in riddles. Good, thats interesting. You see, riddles are information worded in a way you the reader must think to understand. Are you afraid of thinking?



You can also interpit my posts as RIDDLES, simply because there are parts that you do not understand. Consider, riddles are harmless. They can benefit you if you figure them out and are of no harm if you don't.



The actual joy of riddles is solving them, or attempting to solve them.



Gohogwild asked if I keep notes. I do, the reason is, when you study reptiles, what they do is a RIDDLE. We know something about them already, then we have to find, understand and solve everything else. In reality, gathering data, both solves some riddles and creates so many more.



In the field, the fun is, solve a riddle. It could be as simple as, where are you. To as complicated as how these animals respond to drought or radical changes in their enviornment. How such things as mans intervention effects them. Or natural events such as floods, fire, etc. Riddles i tell you.



Actually the most common riddles are simple. Pairing, nesting, seasonal movements. Group selection etc.



The difficult riddles are behavior. Social behavior being very difficult to understand. How they comunicate and they do. These things are huge riddles.



In the past, behavior was completely ignore in field studys. The methods of study were so primitive that it totally interfered with the study subject. But that is changing and quickly.



non contact studys are changing the landscape of field work. And there are some really great studys that have been done and are being done.(yes, I do use cameras to monitor movement)



Now heres the part you may find difficult to understand. To do field work, the very first lesson is, do not prejudice your information. That means, do not think you know anything, do not sway data in any way. Your task is not to know anything, its to TAKE DATA. That data will teach you later, until that data tells you something, your task is to take data and to ask good questions, then ask better questions. Its not about knowing, its about asking questions.



With that in mind, Keeping can be the same. and its why you do not understand me, or may I add, the animals. You see, I do not want to know, I want answers to questions. Once that occurs, i want to ask better questions, etc. To me, its not about knowing. Its about the questions.



YOu folks, want to KNOW, its important to you to know. So you read something and force it on your animals. THen you say, it works. I know!



Yea it works, but what about the animals? You force them to make it work. Its about you. ITs not about the animals.



All you have to do is look at your cages. If you have cages with NOTHING in them but a water bowl, some substrate like sawdust or aspen(nothing they would pick in nature), a hide. Then its easy, its not about the animals not IN THE LEAST. WHich is fine, its ok, you can do it that way, its not against the law.



Again, no riddles, look at your cage and then compare that to where the hog comes from, Where the hog adapted over thousands of years, came from. Is there anything about the hog? Answer please?



Hogs choose a certain type of soil. There is reason and they do choose it. Hogs live in places that provide their means of making a living(all animals must make a living) The, means, are what makes a hog, a hognose.



Is there anything in your cage/s that the hog naturally understands???? My bet is, this question is a riddle to you.



So, what does setting up a cage, with nothing the animal uses in life have to do with that animal? What does the bare minimum choice of temps, from whatever your room temp is, to say, mid eighies, have to do with that animal? What does putting them in wine coolers or some such, have to do with that animal?



Your answer is, it works and it works for you. My counter is, it works for what? It works for you and that has nothing to do with the animal. Just look at the cage you put them in.



And please, do not get your scales all wrinkled in a knot. We all to that to some degree or another. I just want to make the point, ITS NOT ABOUT THE ANIMALS, ITS ABOUT US.



All I offer is, maybe some of us, can offer a little something something, about the animal. Not everything, just little windows of hognose. Little windows of choice.



When working in the field. Everyday, the animals, make decisions, they make choices, Of course the basics, temps and humidities, but others as well like territoral, social, prey, etc. In fact, nearly every minute is making choices.



The first thing you will see is, our temps are NOT reflected in their temps of choice.



Examples, brumation is a term used here, and it has definitions. Lets say, 55F is a good brumation temp. Well, in nature, they are happily crawling around and interacting at 55F. As in not brumating. My two lowest temps for out and active hogs last year were, 45F and 48F, with many many many active temps in the mid fifties. Talk about a riddle, why do you think 55F is a brumation temp.



Or 84F as a warm choice, again, not reflected in the field. Again, a riddle.



Hotter temps are choices based on need. Lets say to crawl on the ground. At cold temps, they crawl slow(logical) and stay hidden. At hotter temps, they can risk crawling across open areas as they now have the ability to move quickly(and hogs can zip across open areas)(in context to being a hog) And those are indeed choices they make



The base choice in temps is to conserve energy at all times. So inbetween task driven high temps, they always seek as cool as they can. Mid fifties to mid sixties, At all times of the year.



In the winter when prey is scare, they go down and socialize, hang out, interact etc. If required. A individual thats non reproductive does not need to do that. Another riddle hey.



So I will stop babbling on with my riddles and say, of course what I say is a riddle to you. You know nothing of this, or it would not be a riddle. Is that a riddle?



What is a riddle to me is, why do you fight me. All you have to do is, ignore me if your not interested. I would take no offense if you ignore me. That would offer me more time with one person that is interested.



A answer to one riddle is, I am only interested in folks(keepers) that want to see something HOG about their hogs. Not all, not knowing all, to enjoy the fun of seeing a hognose be a hognose. And not just a bag of genes to be exposed in totally un-natural ways.



Please understand, I love the morphs in captivity. And they are a great tool to keep people interested in "hognose" snakes.



So I will end with one more riddle, why not allow/support/enjoy, other areas of hogs being hogs??????



Nesting, you can improve nesting by doing one simple thing anybody can do, make it dark, total darkness, and secure. How easy is that. In nature, they never lay eggs in the lite. They seek particular conditions to achieve the most critical of events(without successful nesting, the population is DONE)to nest.



Everything they do focuses on that event. Its important to them and critical. They go out of their way to find suitable reliable nesting. Yet you restrict them to a clear tupperware box with some moist spaghnum. Well, its better then the water bowl, but not by much. Again, a huge benefit for the animal and you, at a low cost. End of nesting rant #5065

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