Sorry to hear about your ordeal. I will try and address each issue as best I can.
"...cage was solidly latched, but it was on a shelf at eye level. My cat somehow managed to push it off when I wasn't home (this was totally unanticipated and it still baffles me how she did it)."
While I do not know exactly what type of cage/tank/housing you have for your snake, I can only assume that the lid was an aftermarket type of lid for a generic style glass aquarium. If you want to keep your snake in a glass style aquarium setup, I would highly recommend purchasing an actual sliding type reptile tank as these would be impossible not only for your cat to get in, but also for a snake to get out. Also, they usually have a hole on the latch to put a type of lock to help deter unwanted people from opening the tank. Aftermarket lids are usually of questionable security and guaranteed that if your cat can figure out how to open it, a snake will definitely find a means as well. They are after all, masters of escape!
"He was found within four hours maximum of his escape, put in his cage, put in a safe cat free spot, and was left completely alone for two weeks as getting batted around had to have been pretty stressful. The escape happened on his feeding day, so he didn't end up getting a mouse at that time. He was an excellent feeder up till this."
Did you happen to notice any actual physical trauma the snake might have incurred at the paws of your cat? It might be possible that the snake might have been physically injured from tooth or claw and not even notice it. It's even possible that the snake might have suffered some type of crushing trauma from the cat pouncing or playing with it. It's far too hard to determine any of these without really taking it to a vet to run more than just a cursory exam.
"Its been long enough that his weight is seriously diminishing (he is an immensely active hognose, and is almost always cruising his viv) and I have gradually reached a point of having to force feed him."
You are way too vague here. How long is "long enough" and just how much has his weight changed? Force feeding is by far a last result as most people unaccustomed to force feeding often risk physically hurting the snake or turning it off of food altogether.
However, it is definitely not unheard of that hognose, especially males, going off of food for lengthy periods of time at any age. Also consider that snakes are more adapt at going off of food for months at a time without suffering from any longterm effects. Obviously we have to take into consideration the circumstances regarding when and why your snake has gone off of feed, but we also need to know the specifics of weight issues. What you might consider significant weight loss might in fact be trivial. We just don't have the information to make any standing opinion on this.
"This is a completely last resort. I have tried toads, lizards, live pinkies, brained pinkies, pinkies actually covered in a brain/blood mix that I keep in a tiny vial in the freezer for a corn snake who is sometimes a stubborn eater, deli cup trick to minimize distraction, etc. I give him overnight to eat, and although I usually feed out of their vivs, I have been leaving the pink in his cage overnight to minimize stress on him."
Again, we don't know the specifics of how long he has gone off of feed nor his exact age or weight to draw any means to make suggestions. However, one mistake often made is constantly offering food when it is not wanted. This also can turn a snake off of food. Are you offering food every day or within a few days at a time? If so, you might be doing more harm than good as this has sometimes had the impact of a snake staying the course on his hunger strike. At best, it is usually advised to only offer food, whether eaten or not, about once a week.
Also, what types of toads are you offering him? There is a huge misconception that hognose will eat, or that it is even safe to eat, any or all species of toads. From all of the literature I have read, some toads such as Marine Toads (Bufo Marinus), which are quite common for sale in the pet trade, are considered highly toxic. I have also heard that fire belly toads which are also common to pet stores are also not advisable to feed to hognose. If you are indeed scenting mice or even flat out offering an animal as a food source that is alien or toxic to it's natural diet, it might also turn him off as well. Again, without specifics, it's way too hard to know what to even guess at.
"We've reached the point that he absolutely needs to have something in him. Last night was my first experience force feeding a snake. I've never been in a position where none of the other methods didn't work."
Again, I would like to know the specifics of when this cat incident happened, what the snake weighed at or prior to this event, how long he's been off of food and how much he weighs now.
"Last night I was able to gently use a piece of stiff paper to force open his mouth (he will not open it any other way) and quickly pushed the tip of an anole tail (anole not attached) down his throat enough that he finished swallowing it. He got a two inch segment, and then another two inch thicker segment once he had swallowed the first. There's pretty much zero chance of actually getting him to take a full pink this way. It was attempted, but I'm fairly hesitant to try to force it past his fangs and venom glands when he doesn't want it.
I did try to take advantage of his muscle response and try to get him to take a pinky because he was accepting the tail, but it wasn't successful."
Why was an anole tail used? When you have a rodent eating snake, one of the worst things you can do is force feed them a different prey item that you have no intention on constantly feeding them. There's a chance that you might turn him onto eating anoles and refusing mice at this point. Why wasn't a rodent tail used instead? You might seriously want to consider purchasing a pinky pump to have on hand, that way you can offer a pureed mouse which is going to be a lot more substantial than just tails anyways. But remember, pink pumps can be extremely dangerous to use if you do not know how to handle one properly. But it is a valuable tool to have on hand for situations like this.
I have a female pink pastel that went off of food for 1 month intervals for over a year while being a yearling. This of course did not cause me too much concern as she wasn't losing any weight. But then she went on a 2+ month hunger strike and after losing 15% of her body weight, I then decided to force feed her using a pink pump. While it was a stressful ordeal as hognose are especially difficult to force feed by the structure of their mouth, it enabled her to have a full belly and gave her a taste of some pureed food which ultimately got her into feeding heavily after only having to do this procedure twice over 2 weeks. Mine was a fortunate circumstance.
"A couple of questions: Is there an easier way of getting him to open his mouth?"
There are special feeding tools called speculas which are designed for and extremely helpful in helping to open a snakes mouth and allowing a means of inserting tubes down their throats for feeding or medicating purposes. You can easily find these on sites like Bean Farm. They are cheap and definitely another tool worth investing in should you need it. In a pinch, you can probably fashion the round end of a paper clip to do the same thing, but the paper clip should only be used once and then thrown away as they will rust and can cause future problems if used again.
However, as I stated before, hognose mouths are definitely far more difficult to open and keep open than any colubrid or any other typically mouthed reptile. With this in mind, you do have to be very careful and sometimes more forceful than you would have to be with other snakes. Obviously, you are also aware of their fangs and do not want to damage them. However, every single article and video I have seen have repeated the fact that snakes replace their teeth on a regular basis, not entirely unlike a shark does, but they do not have the rows of teeth to instantly replace them like a shark. But should you feel this is a huge concern, from what I have seen, it is not.
"I pry his mouth open by slipping the edge of the paper between his 'lips' on the side, and wiggle it for a second until he opens slightly to adjust his jaw, then I keep the paper between his upper and lower jaw as I slip in the tail. This is extremely difficult because he's very small, and as a hoggy he has an absurdly short mouth."
Personally, I do not see how paper can be very useful for doing this. Sure, paper is thin enough to get into his mouth, but is too weak to really do any type of prying. Also, snakes salivate, and you know what happens to paper when it gets moist. Also consider the fact that paper can give you a nasty cut. With that in mind, it might be considered that you might be able to accidently give your snake a paper cut right on his jaw line which would not alone physically harm him, but might deter him from food. Also, paper can have a specific taste to it, so whether or not be a problem with confusing him about food items, it's something worth considering.
"What's better? Anole tails? Mice tails? Rat tails? Rat feet/front legs?"
I believe I covered this prior, but it's worth reinstating. If he's a rodent eater, keep offering rodent parts. The worst thing you can do is confuse him with prey items and then turn him onto something that you cannot feed to him on a consistent basis.
"I do have the means to feed him mouse puree, but don't know if that would be a preferred alternative."
It is.
"Will force feeding for some time eventually generate a food response again?"
It can and can't. It really depends on the snake and the reasons why it might have gone off of food in the first place. Personally, I think this is why a pink pump is a reallly helpful tool. While you might want to cause less stress by force feeding easy items like tails and legs to induce a feeding response down the road, a pinky pump will definitely get far more nutritous matter into the snake than just legs and tails will. But again, pinky pumps can be very dangerous and it is possible to even pump too much food into the snakes stomach which can be very harmful too.
It has been documented that some snakes that have been force fed can rely on this and will not voluntarily eat on their own. Personally though, I have had to force feed 3 snakes and not once has this happened to me. That's not to say the results of force feeding were an overnight success. Sometimes it can illicit a healthy feeding response shortly after and then the snake can go on another hunger strike which forces you to have to force feed again. It's important to document events such as this so you might be able to determine a type of pattern.
"This is extremely stressful for both he and I, and if there is a point where I should give up and have him put to sleep for his sake, I am willing to accept that."
Again, this is where a pinky pump is worth it's investment. Force feeding is extremely stressful, regardless of what type of food item you are offering. So, my assessment would be to minimize the stress while infusing as much nutrition as possible. In other words, if you are going to have to force feed the snake and you know it's going to be stressful, what would be better, feeding it just a little tail which isn't going to offer much nutrition or filling it's belly with a nutritional and easily digestible pureed pinky? Logically, that just sounds more reasonable to me, but everybody's experience will be very different and need to be assessed on a case by case basis.
In regards to euthanizing him, these just seems totally premature without knowing any specifics as I specified earlier. I know you said he is losing weight, but is he looking so skinny that his skin looks loose?
You might also want to consider other things as well. Sometimes it is possible to overlook a snake that went through a blue shed phase and hasn't been able to shed. This will cause a snake not to eat as well as causing a physical appearance which looks like it's losing weight. Also, if he's not eating, you might want to consider lowering his temperature as warmer temps for reptiles causes a higher metabolism. But only you know what type of environment you are keeping him in. There's just too many factors to consider before ruling the poor snake out.
Good luck on your hognose and please keep us up to date with how he's doing!
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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles
