Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This large albino female started refusing food about a week ago, and now she's having this weird bowel movement. Anyone know what this is, and what causes it?

Thanks in advance,

Dan

Nice. Good size clutch? How many eggs total?

reako45

Not a hog guy, but I think those are eggs! Not sure about the yellowish ones...maybe infertile ones? Maybe just urates? What the hell, throw them in an incubator, maybe they'll hatch! Did she start eating???

AHA, I get it! Man I am dim today haha. At first I was saying to myself "I see eggs, a snake, substrate, where is the BM?"

Very nice. As far as yellow eggs, as I have only bred a viviparous snake, are the neonates formed and just not fertile? Or if it still just "egg components?"

Congrats, try deep nesting, both you and your female hog will enjoy it A LOT.

Haha! Sorry to all of you who thought I was serious. Just an attempt at humor.
This was my first clutch of 2014. My 2006 extreme line albino bred to a purple male possible het for pastel pink. I got 20 eggs with three slugs. Mamma is fine, and is eating like a hog.

I've had a few clutches since this post was made, and I've got over 60 eggs in the incubator so far with about 15 more girls post shed and waiting... Exciting stuff!

Red het toffee x conda het toffee laying yesterday:

Frank- No thanks. Deep nesting is impractical and unnecessary. My method has worked perfectly for 15 years, and I'm not changing.

DAN

Nice clutch Dan.

I have to disagree with the statement that deep nesting is impractical and unnecessary. I feel anything we do in captivity to support our animals needs in a better way is completely practical and necessary. Being that this is only your second season breeding hogs, I don't think you have had much of a study group to go by. First and second year breeding females usually have little to no problems. After a few seasons the damage from holding eggs longer than they should the problems become more apparent.

However, I also believe if it works for you, it does not need fixing. Not until you start seeing problems.

Heres the point, why are we happy with "works" How about what works better, then better. You see in nature, the "better" is normal. What barely works is what we force on them. Its not their "normal" choice.

I have a friend who breeds a few hogs and did not have problems, This year, he filled a ten gallon tank with substrate. He put his female in just before she shed. The female dug around, shed, disappeared and laid the night she shed. The next day the female did not come up, he was impatient and dug in the cage. He was all excited when he reported this to me. He said, I found a perfect cave full of eggs. Then found the female at the very bottom. He said, the female looked normal like she never laid.
While many of you think "odd" things about me. I think and feel and have faith that once you see this work right. You, each of you enjoy it so much that and you see the health and behavior benefits. You then fall in love with nesting. In that, I am no different then the rest of you. To see/observe what they do. ITs what they do. Its wonderful.
Not only is it better for the animals, its also better for the keeper. The females are stronger, do not require time to regain weight, as they simply do not lose much, some water weight that's regained the first day. They move right on to growth and more clutches. And both at the same time.
part 1

Yes, I get weird, when I make an attempt to figure out why folks do not want to help, add to, benefit, their captives. This dives deep in to "Psychology today" The number of reasons, the range of reasons etc of why keepers will not do something so easy. As a zoo builder and designer, early zoo's were prison cell, in design. Prison, is an punishment by control. Its punitive, to punish, by taking all control away from a person. Its based on fear. In the case of zoo's the fear of something wild and dangerous. As WILD animals were, less wild, lets say limited in nature. Zoo's moved into a direction of adding some freedom to cages. Freedom is allowing the animals some control. Then to naturalistic enviornments, which allows the animals some more freedom and control. All in all, Its what people do.
If you look at reptile caging, the rack system extreme, is exactly what a prison cell does, it takes all control of the snake away and puts it in the wardens hands(keeper). If you look at it "third party" you would ask, what did the animals do to be punished like that. Every thing that's normal is taken away from them. Think about it, everything. Nothing that's in their normal life is in there. A prison cell to punish.
Please folks, the animals did no wrong, there is no reason to punish them. What people enjoy about this type setup is, the results of their control. The "it worked". My mean arse reply to that is, so what, we figured out how to torture snakes successfully about 45 years ago. How about moving on from there. You see, that was my surprise. In forty five years, private keeping has gotten worse, not better.
Or is it FEAR, folks seem to have this, "fear of failure" so they are afraid to, "give to" the animals. To change from full control may cause failure.
part 2

Or is it insecurity? They do not have confidence so they copy and are afraid to do anything that is perceived different. As Gregg stated many times, hognose are easy to keep and breed, anyone can do it. It is easy, to easy, way to easy.
Again, I may be so so wrong. I "thought" we kept snakes because we liked them, and or to enjoy them. Or have fun with them. Or to gain from doing well with them. In these cases, to enjoy what they produce. To enjoy can be monetary. That's fine.
To keep is to take from. That is, we take from our charges. So wouldn't be only human to give to, as well as take from? Whether its fun, enjoyment, money, educational, etc, its to take. Why not give back.
So I will end with, why not give back??? something, anything? it does not have to be all, do the respectful and offer something to the animals we keep, and nesting is a great start. Respect is in question. Do you respect your animals?
p.s. I was in the field yesterday, and its hard to see just how much we humans take away from the things we love