Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have this female southern hog that was wildcaught last summer and laid 13 eggs on Aug. 13th and she ate all September and October on f/t anole scented rat pinks and f/t anoles but stopped eating in November and hasn't eaten since. She is still very alert and hisses and moves quick,but how long can she go before I should consider force feeding. I don't want to stress her out by force feeding,but will do what I have to. She was brumated for 2 months and I've offered every food item known to man since brumation and she just hisses at the food. Sorry about the dark pic,shes lost quite a bit of weight and is completely flattened out in this pic. Thanks,Kevin

Have you been weighing her? I have an Eastern that I never could get to eat (yet) and I made the decision to start assist feeding her when she had lost 25% of her original weight. (She is now twice what she weighed when I got her last November)

If you _do_ get to that point, or just want to do it a couple times to hold her over till she starts eating on her own again- I've found that it's the easiest thing in the world. I just press a pink (I use multiple small prey items rather than one large because they go down easier) up against her nose, and she more often than not dislocates her lower jaw so it's all wobbly and loose and square-shaped, and I am easily able to just start the pink into her mouth, then she opens wider and I push it all the way in, and then hold her mouth closed over the middle of her head till the pink is safely down. I keep her out long enough to make sure she isn't going to regurge it back up, but she never has once it was down. I just keep stroking her gently toward her stomach.

Good luck getting yours feeding again- I bet if you had her going once, she will feed for you again, when she decides it's time. I might try the bait-and-switch with my girl if I can find a small toad, but she's _so_ afraid of everything, live prey really frightenes her.

Nanci
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*****
0.0.1 Classic Corn, 0.0.1 Cali King, 0.1 Nelson's Milk
1.0 Tricolor Hog, 0.0.1 Eastern Hog, 1.0 Florida King
1.0 Eastern Box Turtle, 1.0 Florida Box Turtle
0.0.2 Desert Torts, 2.0 Feral Pigeons

Posted by: dillybird at Thu Apr 5 11:22:02 2007 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

Have you been weighing her? I have an Eastern that I never could get to eat (yet) and I made the decision to start assist feeding her when she had lost 25% of her original weight. (She is now twice what she weighed when I got her last November)

If you _do_ get to that point, or just want to do it a couple times to hold her over till she starts eating on her own again- I've found that it's the easiest thing in the world. I just press a pink (I use multiple small prey items rather than one large because they go down easier) up against her nose, and she more often than not dislocates her lower jaw so it's all wobbly and loose and square-shaped, and I am easily able to just start the pink into her mouth, then she opens wider and I push it all the way in, and then hold her mouth closed over the middle of her head till the pink is safely down. I keep her out long enough to make sure she isn't going to regurge it back up, but she never has once it was down. I just keep stroking her gently toward her stomach.

Good luck getting yours feeding again- I bet if you had her going once, she will feed for you again, when she decides it's time. I might try the bait-and-switch with my girl if I can find a small toad, but she's _so_ afraid of everything, live prey really frightenes her.

Nanci

Thanks Nanci,I haven't been weighing her,which I should start doing. If I do force feed her I'll probably use a f/t pinky. That seems to be the least stressful method. If your good at it you can force feed them without them even knowing hardly,lol,kind of like a nurse thats good at drawing blood. I could also add a small bit of vitamins to the pink or an appetite stimulant. Thanks,Kevin

So, I'm no expert on any of this, but I had a hog a few years ago that went off feed, and this is what worked for me. I stopped offering water everyday, just removed the bowl. After about a week, I took a f/t fuzzy, and soaked it in water before offering it to her. The Hog, started kind of sucking the water off of the snake, and decided that was alright, next thing you know, down the hatch. Good luck! Beautiful snake BTW

EDIT:

water off the mouse, not the snake, you get my drift.

So, I'm no expert on any of this, but I had a hog a few years ago that went off feed, and this is what worked for me. I stopped offering water everyday, just removed the bowl. After about a week, I took a f/t fuzzy, and soaked it in water before offering it to her. The Hog, started kind of sucking the water off of the snake, and decided that was alright, next thing you know, down the hatch. Good luck! Beautiful snake BTW

Thanks,that technique has worked for me in the past. I tried it on her but no luck.

That's crazy, I have never heard of it! Have you had it work on anything besides hoggies?

Nanci
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*****
0.0.1 Classic Corn, 0.0.1 Cali King, 0.1 Nelson's Milk
1.0 Tricolor Hog, 0.0.1 Eastern Hog, 1.0 Florida King
1.0 Eastern Box Turtle, 1.0 Florida Box Turtle
0.0.2 Desert Torts, 2.0 Feral Pigeons

It usually only works with baby snakes,especially desert animals like gray-bands and western hogs and mexican hogs,you have to be careful though. Actually,I didn't do this with my adult female southern,I misread the post,sorry about that. This w/c simus is to valuable to try anything like that. They need they're water! Kevin

I'm sorry I've used that technique on babies,but not on this adult. It bothers me to much to take a water dish out of a southern hogs cage. They're almost sub-tropical animals. They remind me of rhino and gaboon vipers which also prey on frogs in the wild. Kevin

I guess it might be a bit drastic to some, maybe reduce the time without water. Anything short of force feeding is worth a shot IMO, good luck either way!