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[varanus]

This is taken from the 'Fatty Liver Disease' thread.

Craig, great post and spot on in nearly every detail. Don't let the Armchair experts tell you your wrong.

In the USA and Europe they don't refer to powerfeeding or pumping. They simply call it feeding. They just simulate a good breeding season. No wonder they are so far in front of most of us Austalians when it comes to reptile breeding. I agree with your comments. Most people do underfeed most of their reptiles and they wonder why they do not breed.

I feed all my juveniles a few times a week. Are they fat. No way. As long as you keep them warm all food goes into growth, not fat. As it was stated they grow like weeds. Does it make them unhealthy, no way again. I have been doing it for over 15 years and mine are all fine.

Its when the young obtain adult size, that you must cut the food back, otherwise they will get obese. There is no denying it. Obese snakes normally do not breed and are very unhealthy with short life spans.

Artie, I read your post with some amusement. People often compare themselves to reptiles. What most people do not understand mammals(including humans) and birds grow according to age. No ammount of food will make these grow any faster. It just gets stored as fat. Reptiles and fish however do not grow by age. Their growth rate is determined by food intake. A lot of food, fast growth. A little food, slow growth.

As for BHP's and Fatty Liver Disease. I was the first to pick this up about 20 years ago. I would feed all my snakes the biggest rats I could find. Of course, Jumbo size rats are over half pure fat. BHP's mainly eat reptiles in the wild, ergo, their livers are not acustumed to injesting fat. I lost several before we realised this. I let all the known breeders of the day know of my findings back then, but these days it is common knowledge.

Any species of Python could get Fatty Liver Disease if it is constantly feed fatty food or is very obese for long periods and is not allowed to cool down over winter to use some of their fat.

Regards
Bob

Think I'll be sticking with the advice from a well known breeder who has been in the game for 45+ years.