Hognose Regurgitated What do I Do?!

[Gregg M]

In well over 25 years of keeping and breeding various species, I have never seen this problem. Back in the early to mid 90's I was breeding corns, kings, garters and a few other assorted colubrids. I have had my share of regurges and have always followed up a day or two later with a smaller meal. I have yet to see a snake regurge 2 times consecutively. When I was keeping and breeding gaboons, rhino vipers, puff adders, and Atheris, the rare times I had a regurge I would feed a day or two later and had no issues. Why have I not had an issue? It could be because I keep my snakes hotter than most people. Everything I own or have ever owned gets hot spot up in the mid to high 90's. From years of field herping, I have learned that almost all North American snakes will bask at very high temps in the wild. I have found corms, kings, milks, pines, garters, copperheads, and rattlers basking at near 100°F.

You need to remember that we are also talking about hognose snakes here so the same "rules" do not apply. They have a much higher metabolism than most all other North American colubrids. Their digestive systems are very efficient and evolved to handle frequent feedings. There is no reason a hognose snake should ever wait 10 days for a meal.