Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted last year about a captive born southern hognose I purchased that I was having feeding trouble with. After taking you alls advice I was able to get him feeding freakishly on scented pinks/fuzzies and he put on quite a bit of length. Now 1 year later, trouble has begun again. I put him down for the Winter in November and "woke" him up in March. Almost three months later and he still has not eaten. Luckily he was fat enough last year that he still looks pretty healthy. He is currently about a foot long, but I do not know his weight. Anyways, I have tried all the tricks again, with both frogs and toads and still nothing. I even decided to back track and go with just a live frog or toad and still no interest. He's flicking his tongue but will not eat. Could he be interested in breeding at such a small size? Let me also stress that his overall health seems fine, all other western hogs I have are perfectly healthy and feeding so I am a little worried. Any thoughts, ideas? Is this something that is common with simus?

Could be he is ready to breed. If you get worried, try thawed lizards. Geckos, fence, skinks should all be tried.

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Thank you,
Kevin Rhodes

www.spiderhognose.com

http://www.freewebs.com/spreptile/index.htm
http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc314/lifesciences/?action=view¤t=09-09hognose001.jpg

Were you planning on breeding him? It is pretty pointless to brumate a snake that you aren't planning on breeding. Its just an added risk.

I was not planning on breeding him. I have a dedicated snake room where I keep all my snakes. In that room are several other species of colubrids that I am breeding. That being said, the wife allows that room for the snakes and thats about it. It's a pretty fair trade off, but like you said it is not ideal to brumate unless planning on breeding, but unfortunately I don't have much of a choice. I'm hoping that he will begin feeding within the next month or so, but until then I will continue stressing out.

I will definately give the lizards a try again, but have been unsuccesful in previous attempts.

It is not pointless to brumate a snake that is not breeding for a few reasons... Here are just two reasons to brumate non breeding snakes...

Number one, it can stimulate feeding in spotty feeders...

Number 2, it is natural cycle in many colubrid species... People always talk about how important it is to give reptiles what they need in captivity based on their nature... Why is such a simple, natural behavior like brumation ingnored so often??? Brumation offers a period of much needed rest for your reptile... It is suggested that allowing reptiles to brumate can increase life span and overall health considerably...

I also disagree that brumation is an "added risk"... Again, it is a natural behavior and these animals are designed and built to do it successfully... If brumtion was risky, it would be counter
productive for a species survival... In captivity, when preped properly, brumation is no more risky than feeding your snake...

Greg is correct-when properly done, brumation is both safe and beneficial for temperate zone snakes. In fact, I've seen many cases in which an inappetant snake would probably have perished were it not for brumation, and many hatchlings of certain species will refuse to feed until after their first period of winter rest.
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

Boas, Pythons, Colubrids, Tortoises and Turtles

I disagree with Gregg Madden.

IF PICS. COULD TALK...........

Instead of just saying you disagree, why not explain why you disagree? It would also be helpful if you post some of your experiences that would contradict what I have said instead of quoting a stupid show from the 80's...

Just some suggestions...

I've found Southern and Eastern hogs as far north as Maryland,so yes they can survive being cold.Stating how much you disagree with someone (by name) in the RE box just seems mean spirited.Offering brumation as a cure for a non-eating snake that has already been brumated seems off.Especially now that we're nearing summer.So like your post,here is another that will be completely useless to sandhisser.jenni/

WHERE did you come from,go back............

Ok, southern hogs are found as high up north as southern North Carolina... You will not find them in Maryland... You can find eastern in Maryland though...
No one ever questioned thier ability to brumate...

All I stated in the re box was that I disagreed with Twills... No harm or foul there... You dont see Twills getting the case of the rear about it like you have...

I never said the snake should be brumated... Sandhisser said the snake was brumated and Twills said it is pointless to brumate a non breeding snake... That is the part I disagreed with... The only thing that seems to be off is you reading comprehension and your ability to follow a thread properly...

You disagreeing with me without explaining why you disagree is completely useless... However you posting your ignorance for everyone the forum to see will be useful in letting people know that you really have nothing to offer in the way of knowledge and experience...

Have a good one...

More nice talk,wow you sure are a charmer.Your so-called expertise must be from google if you think southerns can't be found in Maryland and Virginia.Probably just the tip of the iceburg of stuff you DONT know kid.

Offering brumation as a cure for a non-eating snake...seems off.

I merely edited your quote as Gregg, I don't believe, said anything about re-brumating a non-feeding snake that has already come out of brumation, and I don't even think this is the topic anyways as brought up by the OP. What Gregg was referring to, and correct me if I'm wrong Gregg, was that brumation is part of the natural cycle of a hognoses natural life and that some hatchlings that are currently non-feeding can be stimulated to eat after coming out of a brumation cycle.

I, for one, can attest to this brumation trick for non-feeders being true as I had 4 Westerns out of a clutch of 19 that would simply not eat on their own although all of their siblings ate just fine from day 1. After 2 months of failure from offering different food (ie. unscented, scented, live, f/t), we eventually started force-feeding temporarily which we've had success with in the past, but even after months of that, they still weren't wanting to eat on their own although they were growing and becoming stronger from the baby food we were pumping into them. After 3 months of forcefeeding, the weather finally got cold enough here and I stopped feeding these 4 and put them in a room that stayed in the low 60's and with low lighting. After that period of almost 2 months, I warmed them up slightly and offered them unscented pinkies and within a week, all 4 of them were eating on their own and haven't missed a meal now for 2 months. Will it work for every non-feeding hognose out there? Probably not. But as Gregg pointed out, brumation is a part of the natural cycle based on the weather in the geographical regions where most hognose species are found regardless of whether they are of breeding age or not. Do I think that a person needs to brumate their hognose to be successful in keeping and/or breeding them? Not really, many can attest to having successes with or without brumating, but no one can argue against the fact that it is a natural part of their lives in the wild.

The only thing I disagree with Gregg about is saying that Diff'rent Strokes was a crappy TV show. It may be be crappy now compared to current TV shows, but it was quality TV back when I was a kid growing up in the 70's and 80's. Different generations my friend, different generations.
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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles

Troy,
Your comprehension on my posts was perfect... I guess different strokes was not that bad...

liljenni,
You may want to look up the geographical range of the Southern Hognose snake... They only range as far north as the southern part of North Carolina and even ther the populations are very scattered... They are almost extinct in North Carolina...

Can you site on bit of literature that says otherwise??? If you can not, I suggest you keep reading post from people who are experienced insead of posting untruths...

I will not even get into your silly remarks about me being a kid and having google experience...

WELL,said ....
can wait to see your babies,you produce this year...
pretty good for being a kid uhhh,lol

Gregg, please don't repond. End this thread. Thank you

populations are still ok in NC and Sc.
I live in Florida and study them here, they are doing better that most think.
I was with Jeff Beane last October tracking them in NC.
Though they are less common in there range populations are good were they can be found.
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2.2 Southern Hognose
.1 Scarlet kingsnake

http://projectsimusflorida.synthasite.com/

lol.......................

I have been keeping and studying Simus since 2002.

These snakes spend 80% of there life underground. They are inactive during the winter and sometimes in the summer. It is normal for them to go dormant at any time winter and summer.
In the wild they spent all winter underground. They may come up on warm days but still stay dormant. When a male is looking to breed it will not eat much or at all. I think yours may be to young to breed but that may be its case. Sexual maturity is at or around 3 years. You dont have to worry him eating unless he has diarrhea which means it most likely has Geardia caused by getting its own feces on its food. That being said if it is not sick then just make sure he has water and put his head in the water bowl from time to time since they dont drink that way in the wild.

One last thing they will also not eat if the humidity level is low and temps have to be above 75 too.

email me if you have more questions: bladerunner8u@netscape.net

http://projectsimusflorida.synthasite.com/
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2.2 Southern Hognose
.1 Scarlet kingsnake

http://projectsimusflorida.synthasite.com/