Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have some blonde phase madagascan hog noses and i am still assist feeding them after 2 years. Has anyone any experience with them?

Ive tried frog scented, dead mice live mice rat pups, fish scented, tuna scented, lizard scented!!!!!
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www.hognose.co.uk

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www.hognose.co.uk

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www.hognose.co.uk

Have the snakes ever been looked at by a veterinarian, have they ever been tested for parasites?
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Virginia Herping
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VaHS
Virginia Herpetological Society
http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS

... nature has ceased to be what it always had been - what people needed protection from. Now nature - tamed, endangered, mortal - needs to be protected from people. When we are afraid, we shoot. But when we are nostalgic, we take pictures.
Susan Sontag

Yes. they were tubed by a vet and a mixture of gut liner, antibiotics and 2 wormers was administered. This worked fine and is a standard thing i do for any wc not that I have much WC). i did the same to my speckleds and they are pigs and have bred.

The modestus have grown and are shedding well but have never shown any interest in food!
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www.hognose.co.uk

That sounds good, I am glad to hear that there is it be someone out there who takes good veterinary care of their wild caught snakes! It seems as though the anorexia may be common for these snakes. There are only a few things I can suggest.

-Thoroughly evaluate your setups. I know that you take good care of your snakes, but we all get a little complacent once we have an established set up, even though it may not be perfect enough for an individual. I recommend getting an outside source to critique your setups. I did this when I worked in the zoo business, constantly inviting other professionals to come see my setups in give me their critiques. Time and time again I would say "Now here's what I consider a great set up for this turtle", and they would in turn make a long list of things that I either could or should change to make it better. I hope you understand the significance of the suggestion, you may never realize when you have something out of balance and sometimes tweaking something one where the other a degree is enough to get it right.

-When were the last time they were tested for parasites? A onetime treatment, or a single round of treatments is not always enough to completely eliminate parasites. On top of that, there are an infinite ways that animals can become reinfected with parasites. Get them tested at least once a year!
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Virginia Herping
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VaHS
Virginia Herpetological Society
http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS

... nature has ceased to be what it always had been - what people needed protection from. Now nature - tamed, endangered, mortal - needs to be protected from people. When we are afraid, we shoot. But when we are nostalgic, we take pictures.
Susan Sontag

Hi Thanks for your reply. Funny enough,I have a prominent dutch zoologist coming to see me iminently, he wont mince his words. His setups are fantastic, and as yet i dont know any animal that he has kept that he hasnt been able to breed!!!

I keep them in a substrate of fine orchid bark and sphagnum peat moss (neutral ph). The have a third of the viv covered with damp sphagnum moss, and a hide box with damper moss in it.This is the set-up i use for my giants and speckleds and they are all eating and the speckleds are breeding. I have also tried much smaller enclosures, they dont seem to make a lot of difference.

As far as stool testing is concerned, i have a small lab set up here with a brunel microscope and flotation and staining kits specifically for looking for worm ovum and oocysts, I have a friend who is a vet if i need a second opinion and 2 friends, one who is a microbiologist and one who is a biochemist....i have some handy friends. Point taken though, i havent rewormed them, but they are also putting on weight despite the assist feeds, and seem very healthy, although i am aware they must be under some strain from the assist feeds.

On a slightly different tangent, does anyone know how strong thier venom is? i got scratched by a fang last week while assist feeding,a, they are razor sharp, which i was not expecting, it cut through full skin thickness without much effort, b, the would did not stop bleeding c, when it did the wound clotted! So i suspect they have some kind of haemotoxic venom, the wound remains sore now but is healing.

Thanks for your advice.
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www.hognose.co.uk

Hey Baz, how are things across the pond?

I have had 1.2 modestus for a couple of years now. 1.1 of them eat tuna scented about half of the time. The other female has not eaten on her own in almost a year. She did eat on her own before that, however. Out of all three of them, the one that doesn't eat is the healtiest looking. In their defense, all three are wild caught and I think they might be getting old. The male in particular has plenty of "battle scars" from the wild.

Out of all three species, the blondes give me the most trouble. The speckleds can be difficult too, but not as bad as the blondes. My giants, however, never refuse unscented prey.

One more thing a little off the subject. What was the substrate you used for geayi? I have changed my email and therefor lost our correspondence.

Thanks and good luck,
Jim
jim@mostlyharmlessreptiles.com
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3.4 Western Hognose Snakes
1.0 Malagasy Speckled Hognose Snake
0.1 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake
1.0 Ball Python
2.2 Bearded Dragons
1.0 Green Iguana
0.1 Cat
0.1 Dog
1.0 Rat

I have tried scenting even live mice and rat pups with tuna to no avail, i have 2 pairs of modestus, an adult pair and a pair of captive born babies, the male hasnt eaten unassisted for 2 years, the female is a pig!!!! Thinking about it the only thing i havent tried is lizards, I have a western that wouldnt eat so i gave it a deformed rankins dragon and whallop, he ate it, so now, if hes being fussy i just rub a wet mouse on my adult rankins dragons, i think i will try that next!!! i have even considered breeding leos as a food source or axolotls as i have no experience breeding frogs or toads.

As far as the speckleds are concerned, I keep them on a mixture of sphagnum peat moss and very fine orchid bark, they love to burrow in it. Touch wood, i have no problems with either pair of my adults, they are all pigs, i think one pair is going to lay some more eggs imminently. From the 8 i hatched last year, i have got 4 left all feeding on defrost, the rest faded and died, i found out about scenting them with roach a little too late for them( roach is a little like your shiners).

The giants, well what can i say, an adult rat a week, problem feeders....never!!! Breeding well my female is getting old and i dont think shes going to do the deed, however i have a cb 5' plus female growing on.

As for how is it over the water...its about -2c and bloody freezing!!!
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www.hognose.co.uk

Have you tried f/t rat pink/fuzzie dipped in chicken soup? One of my geayi stopped eating after she was treated for parasites, and the rat-soup thing got her going again. Interestingly enough, once she was eating consistently, she only wanted unscented food item. Absolutely refused the souped ones.
Best of luck with your modestus.
regards,
althea

Ill give anything a try to be honest!! Thank you. I know people who have had sucess with the chicken soup method.
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www.hognose.co.uk