Your right, of course its something in the tuna/salmon, and yes, its triggered by smell. I think everyone knows that.



And your very right, its all about asking the right question. Its always about the right question.



A good question is, why do some problem hognose, take Tuna/salmon scented, over toad scented pinkies? Which means taking something scented by an unnatural scent over a normal natural scent. Why didn't the snake take toad scented? That is the question. Troys direction is looking at a scent common to both toads and fish. yet the individual snakes may have refused toad scented. That did occur here with albino westerns(after they arrived here) they did move to live unscented rodents very quickly. (questions to be asked here too)



Normally, when healthy, western hognose do take toads and pinks. And eggs, and several other prey items(I offerred earthworms from in the field to several hogs and all readily consumed them)



You can ask, are rodents a normal prey item? That can be argued. They most likely are a fringe item. That is, they are consumed, but not a major part of their diet.



I would wonder, would it be a healthy behavior for a neonate hognose(4 to 5 inches long) to invade a wild rodent nest?(thats were pinkies are) I would think that would be very deterimental to the health of the hognose. So its possible that neonate hognose would shy away from the scent of rodents until they are large enough to protect themselves. That is also something to question. As in, it may be very normal for hognose to shy away from rodents, particularly if they are not capable of defending themselves.



Again, the right question, I would think it would be wise to follow normal trouble shooting techniques, and that is simplist things first.



I would think that the first question would be, are we supporting the REPTILE(ectotherm) in a way that supports its natural range of behaviors/abilities? as you know, this is what I question, first and foremost(including my own efforts)



If you look at hognose, they are basically a food sack, a big head, thick body that holds lots of food. And in nature, they feed like pigs(hahahahahaha) So the question is, why are they not feeding like pigs in captivity. Most feed well, but I will say, its rare to see the type of prey aggression that you see in nature.



If you can duplicate that feeding aggression, there would be no need to use tuna/salmon scents. Thats my thought. (prevention over treatment)



In a loose way, your(Troys) reply assumes that those supporting conditions are standard(in captivity) and not to be questioned. Instead of coming up with a way to prevent this problem, Troy is looking at it in a way to treat the problem.



I suggest the first step(question) is to prevent the problem, and if that cannot be done, then treat the problem. So yes Troy, its all about the right question and the simplist question.



Which is, are we keeping these animals in a way that supports their natural abilities. Feeding, is about the strongest and most important natural ability. If they are picky in nature, they are GONE, erased, absent, etc. So they always live in places that supports feeding, or they simply would not be there.



There are behavioral concerns, such as prey specialization. Its clear in nature, they(many reptiles, including hognose) specialize on prey blooms. Such as toads. When toads metamorph, there can be millions upon millions of them. Then hogs hit toads hard, particularly the neonate hogs. Until the toads are no longer abundant. Then they move on to other prey. On my site, that was lizards. How this works is very different then how we keep them(you can ask questions you know)



Of interest, adult hogs did not regain lost weight in the toad season. So my question is, is there another prey source that supports adults? one during the summer, before the toads(rainy season) Like nestlings, eggs, etc(birds, reptiles, rodents). A common source of energy with most colubrids. I hope to find this out soon, of course, It may take years. Cheers



A field observation from two days ago.



http://youtu.be/QnoJgmqm_Kg



Sorry for the earthquake, its a telephoto cam, taken from distance. No tripod. and I suck. Thanks for the conversation

[ Show Entire Thread ]