Tom

just was thinking about this, as some one i was talking to at fishing today had a corn snake, and said he feed it every "otherday"..
i of course suggested weekly for an adult, but he told me it was not over weight, i did the whole, well he should be, i also suggested worms, and a vet trip, as i thought maybe parasites/ worms etc might be taking alot of the food from the snake before he could digest it etc etc..his feeding it large mice 2-3 times a week, a pic reveleld it was not over weight, and looked o.k to be honest..
but this made me think..

would a snake eat as much Food as it could if it was infront of it, even if he didnt want to?.
i was wondering, its just something that made me think about how we feed snakes, thats all...

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RuncornReptiles

i feed most of my snakes 1 prey item per week depending on age size etc.
but alot of my snakes specially the boides would feed as many time as they can .. i use this when close to breeding time , as i just feed once every 3-4 days to bulk them up b4 they stop feeding while gravid.
i have seem sum big fat retics tho that had been fed twice a week to make them large which worked but they where carrying alot of extra fat

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Tom

but does feeding more "often" Affect growth rate, or purly bulk?

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EmeraldSapphirez

It's a very irresponsible way to feed a snake because their metabolism is so slow they'll end up with an overload of nutrition and all sorts of deficiencies. They could develop vitamin deficiencies or fatty liver disease etc... I mean deficiencies in the sense that they'll end up with more of one vitamin and less of others. It's hard to explain but I hope you get the gist. It's highly unnatural. Why feed something that in the wild might only get 6-10 meals a year, 3-4 times a week?

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Tom

i agree daisy..
i just was unsure how it worked myself, i mean, what would class as power feeding?.
id think of that as the above, or every 4-5 days?..
but as above, what does that do, it does not make the snakegrow faster does it?.. or is this done purly for "width" of the snake?..

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Khanidge

It depends on the age and spieces.
For instance a coloubride generally has a higher metabolism rate so can take more food than the average boa or python.
Take a corn for example they are more active and constantly hunt out thier prey thus they will ingest thier food quicker because they need to, Where as a Dumerili/royal will lay in wait for the prey to come to them. So have a slower metabolism.
Then a carpet python in general will hunt for prey and have a high metabolism, I use mine almost like dustbins lol and they certainly do not look over weight.
Its all about evolution. It totaly depends on species, the way it has evolved.
But also bear in mind, that if you was to see most of the species kept in captivity in the wild, You would think "oh my that snake is under weight" due to the fact that Regular feeding is not what would happen in the wild.
Irregular feeding (in my oppinion) is the better way to feed your snakes from juveniles through to adults, However giving them a little boost up to breeding season wont hurt on occasion.
Then there is also the breeding factor to take into account. I breed my Dumerili every other year to give the fe-males a break, as it knocks the hell out of thier health. so they get a little boost in feed after giving birth then a year later before breeding.
But there are many breeders that never give thier animals a break.
Ok some species can do this to a degree maybe three years in a row, but boosting, breeding, boosting again, then breeding then boosting ect will take its tole in thier health.
I find that Ovovivipoarous (Boas) need the rest and have, in general a lower metabolism so it is easyer to over feed than the Oviparous (pythons).
And as Daisy mentioned if you over feed your animals it doesnt always show fisically but internally Fatty tissues can build up on the organs and can cause serious health problems and shortened life expectances.
My first female Dumerili to breed, was 8 yrs old before I attempted to breed her I grew her on from a baby with irregular feeds. I was given a 5 year old that is 3 times her size that was, in my oppinion was over-fed/power fed. luckly I have cut down her intake of 2 giant rats or a rabbit per week to 1 giant rat fortnightly, monthly and six weekly. She has a much better muscular shape now and i hope I have increased her life span by doing this

I find that the Royal python morph craze has the biggest example of over-feeding/Power feeding, Where people are too ignorant and impatient to get thier animals to size at a decent natural time.
Many of the royals I have seen have the same body shape as a Bornio short tail or a blood python. This isn't good for the health and life span of these wonderful little snakes. The knock on effect will start to come to a head in the next couple of years where they will be infertile, have ridiculasly short life spans and will start to drop like flies. I believe it was Boston Zoo that had a Royal for 45 years befor it died and it was a wild cought adult when the aquired it, I wonder how many will make it that long??

my rant over lol Deano.....