Hello Everyone,
Let’s start by saying I had a discussion with a friend last night about the amount I am feeding my snakes.
For a back round on the history of me and the snakes I will quickly discuss:
I had 2 hognose snakes shipped to me last late spring/early summer 2011. They are both 2010 hatchlings. The male will be 2 in July and the female 2 in August. The breeder I bought them from is a pretty well respected breeder. I have spoken to him several times via phone and email. He is a very nice man and seems to know what he is doing, breeding for years. When they arrived at my house they were eating live mice at the time and the male was having trouble feeding. He wasn’t taking food as often as the female and he was very skittish. I discussed with the breeder how I wanted to transition them into eating frozen. He walked me through the process and proceeded to tell me that he feeds his snakes every 2-3 days. He also told me that hoggies sometimes are picky about the size of their prey they are eating. So he told me to offer the male small pinkies every 2-3 days. (I just wanted to note that my dad has owned reptiles for 40 years and he even told me that every 2-3 days sounds like a lot.) But I did what the breeder said and the male started eating again. The female is now eating 1-2 small fuzzies every week or so but the male still only wants pinkies, I tried offering him up bigger meals but he does not want them. I even withheld food for a few weeks to see if he would get hungry enough to eat a fuzzy. He did not want the bigger mouse. He only likes pinkies, and I am talking the little red, just born pinkies. And I know he can eat bigger prey, he just doesn’t seem to want them.
I am just concerned now because my friend told me I could potentially be killing my snake feeding him that often. Is this true? And if so does anyone have any idea on why the breeder might have told me this. It is a big concern for me that he gave me this information and I could be putting my snake in danger. I am looking forward to your replies. Once I see what everyone says I will be contacting the breeder and questioning why he gave me the advice he did. Thanks everyone very much and I am looking forward to becoming a regular member of the forum. I love my little hoggies so much!!!
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