From what I have seen, most reptile keepers keep their reptiles like complete garbage. The Ironic thing is that it is actually easier to completely fix problems we see in captivity than it is to try and temporarily fix them.

As far as keepers and breeders keeping their snakes without problems goes, that is complete BS. I know many breeders of different species and they ALL have failures. Snakes just dropping dead for no reason, females becoming egg bound, females not being able to produce past a certain age and size, and the list can go on. However, on the forums we only see people successes and the failures are kept quiet and are crammed in the closet with the rest of the skeletons. Failures that generally do not happen in nature with fit animals.

MOST hognose breeders will tell you that big females over a certain age will not be good producers. Seriously, ask any breeder how old their oldest producing hog is. This is completely opposite to what happens in nature. How does that logic make any sense at all?

You can not believe the amount of females lost from egg binding every year in the collections of small and large breeders alike. A couple of breeders I know personally have lost 10 females between the two of them just this season due to egg binding.

Dehydration is most likely the biggest killer we face as keepers and breeders and information like what was quoted in this thread from the herp society is bad information. What living reptile lives and thrives in complete dryness? Dry conditions without some type humid escape does not sustain reptilian life. Even reptiles from the most arid regions of the world find cool, humid areas in their habitat to escape the elements frequently on a daily basis.

As mentioned, we make an ATTEMPT to replicate what they have in nature but in most cases, it is a very poor feeble attempt because of the lack of understanding of reptile physiology and behavior.

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Hide Replies ]