Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What are the shortest females that have successfully reproduced for you? how about unsuccessfully? not weight, length please. If unsuccessful, please include what you think was the problem.

About mice and hair, I have seen several of my hogs, for lack of a better term, regurg hair balls. They do so at the time they defecate. It does not seem to bother them. It may be my conditions not being right, or is it normal?????? It also does not hinder feeding or growth. They don't do this with toads, lizards, pinks or small fuzzies.

Its never undigested material, only hair. Again, its only when they feed on large mice with a lot of hair.

Which brings up the next question, has anyone tried feeding birds like chicks or small quail? Of interest, on the hog sites, there is a lack of quail or ground dwelling birds, when compared to similar habitats without hogs. Thanks again

With the large hair quantities they could digest some but not all of it, and so like the egg eater snake they might regurgitate what they can not digest.

As far the the ground dwelling birds they may consume the babies. I don't know how big your ground birds are in the west but the Bob-White Quail adults here in Florida are too big for an adult female Eastern Hognose, the largest of US species. Now the eggs on the other hand, and again the chicks of the ground birds could be eaten by them.
An interesting idea to try would be to gather a few eggs of ground dwelling birds (if it is not illegal to do so) and offer them to hognose snakes at your sites, or even to any back at your house or 'shop'.
Another consideration is the sites themselves. Did you choose them for their high concentration of hognose snakes or for a variety of habitats to see if hognose snakes occur there? There could be something that hognose snakes like in their environment that ground dwelling birds don't like for nesting purposes? Could have to do with when the sun comes up and expose the birds and nests to X amount of hours of sunlight. Could be type of dirt and ground clutter for digging and building nests. Just an idea to look into.

Hi,
I was going to test bird eggs this year, but they were scarce on my property. Sometimes we have quail and doves by the millions, not this year. When the monsoon starts, the wind knocks lots babies and eggs, out of their nests. Again, not this year.

One of my goals this year was to find quail nests on the site and watch them, there are Scaled quail and harliquen quail(sp). Also box turtle nests. I did see 6 females nesting, but nothing dug up eggs. SO far. Box turtles are a whole bag of their own, hahahahahahahahaha. Goofy things. I saw no quail or nests during the birds breeding season. But saw them during the winter.

I could set up fake nests, but that is a bit intrusive and may not reveal much. We will see.

Just wondering if anyone used quail as a food source in captivity, and it they regurged feathers. Thanks