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Cooperthepython View Profile |
Borris, a pic just to show him off!!
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| 12/01/07 07:36pm |
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Dane_Zoo View Profile |
Message To: Cooperthepython In reference to Message Id: 1532628 Borris, a pic just to show him off!!
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| 12/02/07 02:05am |
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JackAsp View Profile |
Message To: Cooperthepython In reference to Message Id: 1532628 Borris, a pic just to show him off!!
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| 12/02/07 02:07am |
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Cooperthepython View Profile |
Message To: JackAsp In reference to Message Id: 1533135 Borris, a pic just to show him off!!
Please reply JackAsp |
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| 12/02/07 01:24pm |
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JackAsp View Profile |
Message To: Cooperthepython In reference to Message Id: 1533437 Borris, a pic just to show him off!!
One thing I have found with mine, though, is that she does better with no night time temperature drop. That’s actually the case with almost every snake I’ve ever had, even though care sheets keep on suggesting them. I keep her in a large cage (40 gallon breeder) with undertank heat, deep enough substrate that she can find a comfortable level, and fluorescent lighting that runs from 7AM to 9PM. The strip light hold two 18" lights and although they are not full spectrum they aren’t the cheap purplish lighting either. They look like sunlight. She has a fairly regular activity pattern but is not ovrwhelmingly "active," and she eats every five days, often even trying to beg a few days early. I’ve usually found increased activity during the winter to indicate that snakes are looking for someplace more comfortable. The ones that eat well year round pretty much act the same year round too. The ones who start circling around are bothered by something. Dry air, cool spots, decreased lighting, whatever, increased winter activity and winter fasting seem to go hand in hand. Is the whole cage 85-90 during the day? Even though they do like it warm, if the cool spot is still 85 my guess would be he’s circling around looking for a cooler area. What kind of heating/ cage are using? Even if it’s just a ten gallon or something there are ways that it can probably be tweaked a little to make him more uniformly comfortable. A lot of people say that it’s normal for males to have shakier appetites. But this sounds below normal. |
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| 12/03/07 01:12am |
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Cooperthepython View Profile |
Message To: JackAsp In reference to Message Id: 1534194 Borris, a pic just to show him off!!
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| 12/04/07 03:29am |
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Cooperthepython View Profile |
Message To: Cooperthepython In reference to Message Id: 1535286 LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
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| 12/04/07 04:08am |
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JackAsp View Profile |
Message To: Cooperthepython In reference to Message Id: 1535298 LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
What I do is put all three mice in the feeding cup. I usually do it with tongs while she sits behind my neck and watches, but sometimes I just put them in and go get her. She’s eating the first one before I even have her butt in the container, and she usually keeps eating until all three are gone. Once in a blue moon, my turtle ends up getting one, but not often. I’d go with whatever he likes best, in whatever quantities it takes to give him a full meal that he’ll eat the same size of regularly. Ideally. older rodents are healthier, because their flesh is leaner and their bones contain more calcium, but a bunch ogf pinkies on a regular basis is probably still healthier than a hopper once a month. I don’t use a heat bulb, but many do. I prefer the UTH with bright but cool lighting because it encourages the snake to pay more attention to which parts of the substrate are which temperature all the time, instead of having to learn one set of rules for daytime and another for night-time, when they’re not particularly awake anyway. I’ve heard of setups like yours working for the species, and I’ve used it with no trouble for other snakes with the same suggested conditions as a hognose, it’s just not the system that works for the one I’ve got. Prey type or prey presentation might be the culprit here. Some snakes have weird rules about how they like feeding time to work. I was feeding mine as I wrote that, and just went to check on her because she was looking like she wanted to come out, which usuallymeans she’s full. I was a little worried this would be one of those non-finishing days because I discovered when I was taking her out that her rheostat was turned off, so therefore the UTHs plugged into it were also both off. The switch is really sensitive, and easy to bump with your toe. I’m not even sure if it just happened yesterday or if it’s been a while. It’s a warm room, but I know from experience with her that she does best in a warm room with constant mild corner heat. She didn’t even start eating until I had her in the cup, which is extremely restrained for her. And she’d only eaten two when I looked,. The third was completely ignored. I took it out very slowly with tongs, because fast-moving prey gets her very vocally upset, and I brained it and put it back in, but when I went back and looked after writing what I just added, she hasn’t even turned around to sniff it. It’s turtle food. So based on my vast months of experience with one hognose, I’m gonna still go with my theory that constant warmth with no night drop is the way to go. If you don’t want to go with undertank heat, try a red light for at night. I know that they are a temperate species and that there is no reason whatsoever that a night temperature in the 70s should still call for a warmer spot as an option, but I also know that mine does not believe that she is temperate and if I were to show her a range map of western hognoses living in Canada (and get her to understand somehow what it meant) she would give me the same look that I had when I first heard abut Eskimos eating raw walrus blubber. One thing about the pinkies though, a hopper is WAY more than three pinkies. I buy big bags of food, and weigh them out a head of time, putting them into marked group ziplocks so I can use up all the smallest ones first, then the next smallest, and so on as the snake grows. In the last bag of fuzzies I bought, there were fuzzies ranging from 2 grams to 10. So while I don’t know size ranges of each stage o mouse development off the top of my head, I’m guessing that the alternative to a hopper would more likely be TWENTY pinkies. Try fuzzies and see that works. Does he eat live or dead? If it’s live, I can certainly very easily see being intimidated by hoppers. A fuzzy a week might seem more realistic to him, and a fuzzy every week is certainly better than a hopper every month. |
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| 12/04/07 03:34pm |
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Cooperthepython View Profile |
Message To: JackAsp In reference to Message Id: 1535624 LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
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| 12/04/07 08:22pm |
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JackAsp View Profile |
Message To: Cooperthepython In reference to Message Id: 1536000 LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
I can’t really tell his age or weight from the picture. Gram scales are a very handy thing with snakes. Not only do you realize once you start weighing meals how horrible we are at eyeballing how many small mice equal one larger one, but it gives you a clearer idea of what a normal meal is to him. If he’s very small, the hoppers might be filling him up so much that he isn’t used to eating again until he’s extremely hungry. Mine is a little over a year old and eats about ten per cent her body weight per meal. of that, she maintains about half of that increase. (There’s a whole schpiel where I put the mice in the cup and weight them, then add her and get the combined weight, then subtract the difference to get what she weighed before eating, yadda yadda yadda. So for example, today she went from 241 tp 262 grams. Her feeding before that took her from 228 to 251. I write down both numbers on the callendar, so if we ever reach a point where she strongly prefers a certain size I’ll at least have a clear idea what actual amount of food, rather than "number of large or small items" is normal for her.) It looks like you’ve got time to iron out the bugs with him, so don’t panic. Worry, yes, but panic tends to make us do things like force feeding, waving mice a them until they’re sick of seeing them, changing their home on them every single day for a month whenever one more idea strikes, and so forth. It’s a problem to be solved before it leads to other problems that lead to an emergency, not a problem to be solved because it’s an emergency, because it isn’t. Somewhere there’s an answer to be found, and I look forward to hearing what does it for him. Actually, just to cover all bases, you’re concern for what’s going on inside him brings up a question. When was the last time he had a stool check? Freeze the next turd you get from him and call a herp vet. You don’t need to bring the snake in, you just bring the sample, pay about 20 bucks, and if they find anything you can talk medicine then. Sometimes they make you bring the snake in, but usually you can just weigh him and tell them the results. it’s not like there’s an enormous black market for litle tiny eyedroppers of Panacur that they have to really worry about. I’ve only had two snakes that I treated for parasites (the first few I had were never tested and most of the others just never go them) but what I personally have experienced with them was regurgitation rather than loss of appetite. However, many, many other people have seen loss of appetite from the same organisms. It’s something you should check every year anyway if your snake is eating either live or freshly killed prey. His weight looks fine, but so did the weights of both snakes that I had to medicate, so you never really know until you know, you know? |
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| 12/05/07 12:51am |
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Cooperthepython View Profile |
Message To: JackAsp In reference to Message Id: 1536306 LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
When I tryed to day feeding him, he was abnormally anxious acting. Like trying to borrow out of him feeding container, where he usually dont do that. I amjust going to let him be and like you said get some bugs worked out with his tank. I am still just going to let him be and try not to stress him out for about a week and see what happens, unless he craps and the vet finds something is wrong. I will keep you informed as much as I can, I am also going to get a scale I have been meaning to get on but have just plane been forgeting it. I really really appreciate that you are trying to help me out getting my snake better, people like you are really appreciated when it comes to info, tips and just trying to help. I will try to work some things out and mabey I can get some progress soon. I am on this site alot around 4pm to 11pm (central) so If you need to know something from me just poast it or give me a message. Thank you and I take all your info and knowlage very highly. I will be in touch. |
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| 12/05/07 01:08am |
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JackAsp View Profile |
Message To: Cooperthepython In reference to Message Id: 1536324 LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
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| 12/05/07 05:31pm |
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Cooperthepython View Profile |
Message To: JackAsp In reference to Message Id: 1536797 LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
Ohhh well its not a perfect world and could go on forever about this subject. I will still give you any updates on him, he is starting acting like his normal self today, like not being out in the open all the time and chilling out in either hot or cold spots. I appreciate your concerns, from a snake owner to another. Take care. p.s. do you have a camera so that we all on here can see your hogg’s I would love to see some pics of them |
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| 12/05/07 07:41pm |
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JackAsp View Profile |
Message To: Cooperthepython In reference to Message Id: 1536923 LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
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| 12/07/07 01:47am |
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Cooperthepython View Profile |
Message To: JackAsp In reference to Message Id: 1538435 LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
p.s. nice looking snake |
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| 12/07/07 04:50pm |
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JackAsp View Profile |
Message To: Cooperthepython In reference to Message Id: 1538868 LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
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| 12/10/07 11:18pm |
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Cooperthepython View Profile |
Message To: JackAsp In reference to Message Id: 1542669 LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
~~CHAD~~ |
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| 12/11/07 02:11am |
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