Greetings from a Newbie.
I had a breeding collection of Epicrates of the Carribean about 25 years ago. And a few colubrids to boot. 20 years ago, they were all stolen. I took up gardening. And became quite proficient at my traded-in addiction.
One thing I've learned over time, is that "What works for one person may not work for another person".
Such as soils. My friend, one county north of me, can take a bucket of salty estuary muck, rip a branch off a rose, jam it in the muck, and within 2 weeks, roots are coming out the bottom of the bucket, and the danged thing is blooming. When I try his method, which he swears is the only way to grow a rose cutting, I get a bucket of stinky muck with blue fur growing on the surface in about 3 days. When I do rose cuttings, I use sterlilized clippers, make cuts at specific nodes of growth of a specific color range, stick the cuttings in sterilized pots, full of nutrient enriched sterile soil-less planting medium , and water in with KLN. I get 100% success. When my friend tries my method, he gets pots of blue fur. Hence: "What works for one person may not work for another person".
I kind of stumbled across kingsnake.com by sheer accident about 5 months ago, after a friend at work talked me into going to a reptile show (and I came home with 9 snakes)... I've been sitting here reading lots of information and keeping notepads loaded with information. Some of the information I will keep and use; some of it I will ditch. I will utilize what I understand; what works for me.
Mulch or cocofiber or whatever the substrate; we all have relationships with the products with which we understand. As individuals. We, too, are living beings. And we utilize what works for us. One has, I suppose, the option to accept differences of opinion with logic, or with emotion, or with another abstract perspective I have not considered. Or perhaps with a blend of these abstracts. I am hoping my logic is in control of the words I type tonight. Not the E word.
Regarding the original thread, I am not psychic, I have not seen a picture of the snake that has not eaten. I purchased several high end cornsnakes off of classifieds here; some of them went quirky-wurky on their feeding during the winter months. Perhaps this is normal. Perhaps with heat tapes and thermostat controls, they would have continued eating normally. Perhaps this, perhaps that. Speculation is not factual information, thus, it need not be presented. A "rule" should not be based upon an exception. I'd read on one thread somewhere on kingsnake.com about a product called "NutriBAC". It allegedly contains bacteria and enzymes for the reptile stomach which assist the reptile to digest food. If no food is present in the gut, it makes the critter hungry and increases appetite. AFTER getting the heat tapes and thermostat stuff setup, to keep my snakes at 80 degrees on one side of the enclosure (cooler on the other side, further away from the heat, so the critter can go where it feels "right" for itself within said enclosure), I added a bit of the powder to the drinking water, and following package labeled directions, changed it daily. The next time food was offered, the non-feeders fed right away. I dunked the food in a little more of the product (just a trace amount) to make sure.
As with fertilizer on plants, a little is fine; too much of any good thing (like beer) can be a bad thing. Better safe than sorry.
I do not KNOW for a FACT, but Suspect that captive born/bred animals have lesser digestive bacteria in their guts. In the wild, they would likely ingest wild food loaded with micro-organisms; whether from consuming other cold blooded prey such as lizard hatchlings or earthworms or bugs or whatever is a subject for further/deeper study on my behalf. Culture-grown mice/rodentia or any kind of food source which is from culture (not nature) is likely to contain less beneficial micro-organisms. The food source may have been raised to grow fast and contain a lot of protein and be low fat, buit protein alone is not everything a living organism requires to be healthy. It will live, however, living and thriving are two entirely different situations of lifestyle. Again, I do not KNOW for a FACT, but Suspect these things.
I wish there had been a site like this back when I was breeding Epicrates striatus fosterii. Anyways, please accept what little hopefully useful info is contained herein, and try to let the logic stay in control.
You are all VERY appreciated by me.
Nobody can make themselves look good by trying to make someone else look bad, and
You can't convince people if you alienate them.
Warm Regards,
dave
