You may also consider the fact that picky neonates are probably not surviving in the wild.



Just because "wild adult hogs eat well", does not mean all wild hatchlings do. A large percentage of each clutch dies in the first year of life. How can you be sure those deaths are not related to a hog being picky about food, or because a hatchling refused to eat food when I came across it?



Unless you are digging up nests and using telemetry and other devises to monitor the babies as they hatch, you cannot be sure how many survive, or how many die, or why the die.



If you are claiming to do this, the where are your research papers on neonate hognose appetites in the wild versus in captivity? How can you prove to your audience that pickyness is a problem that only affects captive snakes?



You can't prove it. Not without more research. So don't make generalizing statements about wild snake behavior when you don't know.



You can't be 100% sure that the first year mortality rate is not affected by pickyness in wild hogs. And if you claim to have proof, lets see the research papers.
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4.4.4 Western Hognose

1.1 Ball Pythons

1.0 Everglades Rat Snake

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