Other pets (pics and discussions)

[d_virginiana]

Tank is adorable My Turtle was doing something similar the other day. A set of leaves had broken off her fake plant and she was all stretched out sleeping with her eyes covered by it. She drags stray debris to her favorite corner lol. They are a lot smarter than they get credit for.


Thought I'd share this. Apparently, ball pythons used to be worn as living jewelry by African royalty. I thought Moose needed to understand her ancestral culture.

2013-07-29 16.40.07.jpg

[jwolfe152]

Thought I'd share this. Apparently, ball pythons used to be worn as living jewelry by African royalty. I thought Moose needed to understand her ancestral culture.

thats a cool piece of information

[CrazyHedgehog]

New snakes today, not garters, but I'm pretty chuffed.
Theses are Sinaloan milks, breeding pair!

sin1.jpg sin2.jpg sin3.jpg sin4.jpg

[guidofatherof5]

Sweeet.

[jwolfe152]

wow nice looking snakes

[guidofatherof5]

Tank woke up early and was busy right off the start. He saw someone(Gabby) sleeping on the couch so he climbed up to see who it was. Later in the day I found him on Kale's futon. He seemed to like it and stayed for a couple hours. Such a curious turtle.

[aquamentus_11]

So, I've decided to give myself a graduation present next spring of the legless, scaled variety. The question is: which species?
Sadly, garters and rats are out, but (having a preference for keels) I've been looking into hognoses. I know a few of you guys keep these so I figured I'd get some good feedback here (as always).

What's their feeding response like? How about longevity? After reading a few articles, I have concerns re: feeding a purely mammalian diet to a reptile/amphib eating species. The easterns (which I would actually prefer) usually can't be switched over and suffer from fatty liver etc. if they are. Those of you with long-term experience with the species: any problems with this in the westerns? If so, I won't even bother. The westerns apparently eat a lot more rodents in the wild than the other species.

Thanks again.

[woody44]

I feed all my westerns a purely rodent diet and have never had a problem. They don't have a lot of the problems associated with easterns in captivity. Avoid wild caught westerns as they are the worst problem feeders I have ever encountered but cbb animals are a joy to keep.

[guidofatherof5]

Shannon (aSnakeLovinBabe) has kept many a Hognose I believe. Hopefully she will stop by and add to the thread.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Most western Hoggies, especially captive bred will take rodents or at least entertain the idea right out of the egg. They seem to live long healthy lives on rodents as well. Westerns are a little more opportunistic than their specialist cousins. My younger hogs were special needs babies that would only eat anoles for their first 6-7 months of life and I just recently finally got them all feeding on nonscented rodents.

As for easterns.... if you aren't going to want to or be able to feed them toads... don't bother. Their body just isn't cut out for it. I actually now feel this way about thamnophis as well.... a varied diet with rodents inlcluded is fine but in my opinion, strictly rodents like they're a corn or a king snake is forcing their body to make adaptations it just can't totally handle and that is why we see so many lethargic, obese adult garter snakes that are only living until 7 or 8 years old.

One thing you will notice that is similar between the two species (hognose and garters) is that older, more mature females sometimes develop large, fatty bulges in the bases of their tails. Sometimes it gets really big and looks like a big tumor. To my knowledge, it is something that has only been seen in captivity... so far, only in these two species... and in the case of thamnophis, I personally have only seen it in animals that were fed just a plain rodent diet (although I would love to see examples of otherwise). There are speculations in the hognose community about why this happens, but nobody seems to actually know. You can't help but wonder.

anyways... if you want a western hognose... go for it. They make fantastic pets and their antics are literally the most hilarious out of all the species in the snake world. They are drama queens, actors, bluffers, and just plain awesome.