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[boa]

I agree, I have seen no literature that backs this up, as a personal opinion it's fine but to say it halves life expectancy is as you say just a stab in the dark.
It is a fact that the vast majority of breeders who feed their hatchlings 'well' rarely talk about their methods as it just invites abuse but having kept snakes for a great many years I haven't seen any evidence it reduces life expectancy at all. It is obvious feeding mature snakes in the same way will have negative effects on their health but from my experience feeding hatchlings every 4 or 5 days appropriately sized feeds does nothing detrimental.

Originally Posted by hazzard

Can you point me towards some literature that confirms this? Or is this just a personal experience thing?

The data available on overfeeding hatchlings and life expectancy is sketchy at best. And what exactly is overfeeding a hatchling (no data available for this yet either)?

Definitely not comparing to the wild as it is feast or famine out there, but under captive conditions with accurate temperature gradients maximum metabolic rates are genuinely obtained.

Granted feeding grown mature animals regularly can be a disaster but the information on "life expectancy being halfed is a stab in the dark IMO"