Power Feeding and Power Shedding

[pythrulz]

People do not relize power feeding a snake can obvisouly lead to major health problems and this can lead to loss of muscle tissue to much fat tissue why do people do this when it does come to breeding they will not have enough muscle to push out te eggs and this can even kill the snake dont power feed any snakes or any other living thing

 

[BIGBANG]

Depends what type you want to breed.

l I have a couple bredli what is a weight for them?

 

[Pythoninfinite]

2.5 years old. They eat, move and **** fine. They are placed in a larger enclosure for regular exercise.

I think it's pretty obvious that this post is a wind-up... If it isn't, there's a couple of points leading from this post: firstly, pythons don't ever engage in "regular exercise", and secondly, these snakes would be in a constantly digesting phase, and be even less likely to want to move around. The note about bathing in warm water and fogging the enclosure is crap - shedding is a process which follows a pre-determined path/pattern, and the only external factor which is likely to affect the time the process takes is temperature, and then not by much.

Jamie

 

[abnrmal91]

I never understand people power feeding only for the purpose of breeding as soon as possible. Greed is a wonderful thing.

 

[bigguy]

I hate that term Power Feeding. In reallity its just feeding. What most people in Australia dont realise is that they starve their animals by listening to crap stating a snake only feeds once a week or a fortnight in the wild. They eat whenever food is available. Their are no skinny snakes in a mouse plague.

If you follow simple rules there are no health problems by increasing a snakes feed and having them grow quicker. I started doing this at least 25 years ago, and I had more clutches from each female than just about any other Aussie breeder, and my snakes were regarded as some of the oldest in captivity in the country. Health problems doing this are just an Urban Myth.

Firstly you must keep the snake warm at all times(30c) to keep their metabolism fast. You only feed regulary to young growing reptiles. Once they are nearing full size, back off on the feeding and just give them a mainainance diet. The only adults I feed heavily too were the females after having their eggs. Once they regained their normal weight I backed off again.

 

[Justdragons]

Bredli are worth stuff all, why the need to breed so badly? you can pick up hypos for under $200 these days.

 

[notechistiger]

Firstly you must keep the snake warm at all times(30c) to keep their metabolism fast. You only feed regulary to young growing reptiles. Once they are nearing full size, back off on the feeding and just give them a mainainance diet. The only adults I feed heavily too were the females after having their eggs. Once they regained their normal weight I backed off again.

Not too sure how that's really any different to the "standard" feeding regime.

 

[saximus]

Well said Bob.

Bredli are worth stuff all, why the need to breed so badly? you can pick up hypos for under $200 these days.

He never said he was interested in making money. Everyone just jumped in and assumed that.

 

[Justdragons]

Well said Bob.



He never said he was interested in making money. Everyone just jumped in and assumed that.

I think you will find it was a question to find out why he wants to breed so badly?
if not for money then what?
If its for the entertainment and understanding of the life and reproductive cycle of a reptile why would one need to speed things up rather than just taking it in and letting the animals go their pace?

 

[saximus]

I like you JD so I'm not gonna start a silly back and forth internet argument but I just don't like that sort of assumption. I think it says more about the parties making this assumption - that this is the first place their mind goes - than the OP. In all likelihood you're probably right but there's still a chance he wants to do it for the experience and is just impatient.
Anyway the main topic here that people seem to take offence to is power feeding and, like Bob said, it is more than likely an urban myth anyway. There seems to be no hard proof that it affects animals in the long term and, if anything, there seems to be evidence (from that study that Josh posted) and experience from keepers who say it is actually the opposite.

 

[Colin]

I feed my adults roughly every two weeks and prefer feeding two medium to large rats Vs one huge jumbo rat full of fat. I usually have them shed approx every 8 weeks and they are in good condition, healthy and breed well. coming up to the breeding season I pump the females a little more heavily with food but prefer to run my adult males a little leaner when breeding. Others may feed more or less but Im happy with my system.

 

[No-two]

This one has been done to death, if you wanna be poor and feed your snakes bare minimum, thats fine. Don't complain to me for feeding them when they want it, done 'properly' (as bigguy said, fed them while they're growing and slow off once they're adults) there is no issues with it.

 

[Grogshla]

each to their own.

 

[Gruni]

I find it interesting that the OP seems to have been scared off and hasn't added anything since they asked the question.

I personally don't believe in power feeding to accelerate snake size and am more interested in seeing a healthy muscle definition on my animal. Also I have been told that power feeding leads to accelerated 'body' growth but not a balanced overall growth resulting in a 'pinhead' snake, where their head seems out of proportion to its body. Not an idea I find desireable.

So if there is no ulterior motive for breeding from them quickly why not just let them grow at a healthy rate and enjoy your selected pet?

 

[No-two]

I personally don't believe in power feeding to accelerate snake size and am more interested in seeing a healthy muscle definition on my animal. Also I have been told that power feeding leads to accelerated 'body' growth but not a balanced overall growth resulting in a 'pinhead' snake, where their head seems out of proportion to its body. Not an idea I find desireable.

Doesn't exist.

 

[Cold-B-Hearts]

I was going to say the same as the others have said. It's not healthy and just plain unnecessary. Think of all the extra strain your putting on their digestive tract, they have a slow metabolic rate they aren't built to digest lots of food quickly especially not over a prolonged period of time.

research has taught me that snakes can change there metabolic rate yes it goes low during winter but snakes can also have a quicker metabolism then you expect.

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i feed most of my snakes once a week. i have a female i want ready for the 2013 season shes 600g give or take. her temps hot spot is 32 and she eats 2-3 times a week on small adult rats. snakes grow as much as they are fed. people talk about the snake getting obease. they simply just go longer. debate about it as much as you like but in the wild a snake dosnt choose how much it gets fed. it could eat 8 rats one week then not find any food for a year. If you snake isn't hungry it will turn its nose at food.

 

[wokka]

I feed my adults roughly every two weeks and prefer feeding two medium to large rats Vs one huge jumbo rat full of fat. I usually have them shed approx every 8 weeks and they are in good condition, healthy and breed well. coming up to the breeding season I pump the females a little more heavily with food but prefer to run my adult males a little leaner when breeding. Others may feed more or less but Im happy with my system.

Colin, have you any evidence that fat is bad for snakes or that lean is good for snakes? Maybe a simple trial comparing feeding a group jumbos and a group 2 x large rats and then compare the difference.
I imagine that like other animals their age and reproductive status would influence nutritional requirements. As opportunistic feeders if it a feast they eat heaps and in a famine they wait.

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I recently obtained a young pair of carpet pythons which were too young and too small to breed.So I began to power feed them in order to get them up to size for next season. They weighed 300grams 4 months ago.They were eating hopper rats at the time.They now weigh 1.2kg and are eating Large Adult Rats.To help with the shedding process I placed them in a tub with warm water and a fogger to increase humidity levels. This process sped up shed times from roughly 2 weeks down to 4 days. Both snakes seem happy , healthy, and growing rapidly. Anyone else have any ideas?

What do you mean by shed times? The shed cycle is determined by growth which in turn primarily depends upon feed and temperature. I am not aware that humidity has much influence on the shedding frequency.

 

[jairusthevirus21]

carpets love the abuse! lol

 

[Colin]

Colin, have you any evidence that fat is bad for snakes or that lean is good for snakes? Maybe a simple trial comparing feeding a group jumbos and a group 2 x large rats and then compare the difference.
I imagine that like other animals their age and reproductive status would influence nutritional requirements. As opportunistic feeders if it a feast they eat heaps and in a famine they wait.

I never claimed fatty rats were good or bad for snakes warwick. read my post > I said "I prefer feeding two medium to large rats Vs one huge jumbo rat full of fat" and thats my preference.

That said I can't really imagine fatty rats being good for them. Are you claiming that fatty rats are good for snakes? I really have no desire to feed my animals fatty rats for some test or study. Even if some study showed "fatty rats" were "good" for reptiles I wouldn't be feeding them, and thats my choice. Snakes may look similar in outward appearance but it's what's inside that you don't see that I suspect the fatty rodents would take their toll. I have my own methods and beliefs, others have theirs.

Anyway the way I feed my animals is my methods and I'm not suggesting its better or worse than anyone else's methods just what I personally believe works for me based on my animals condition and breeding results over the years. I've had an animal die on the odd occasion (as everyone has) but I've never had cause or need to actually take a reptile to the vet for sickness in 20 plus years of keeping them either. And I also have been pretty careful who I buy from (If and when I ever buy anything at all) and would never buy anything from someone I didnt know & trust or at least know of from friends I trust no matter how "cheap" it was or even if it was for free.

I pump a good amount of food into them from hatchlings to a year old when I start to slow down a little when they are a good size in that first year and still feed them well but at longer spaced intervals while they mature and get a bit of age on them before I attempt to breed them. I dont breed my carpets before males are at least 2.5 years old and females 3.5 years old. Not saying you can't breed them earlier but I prefer to let them grow a little and mature before I breed them. Thats my way and others may do things differently.

 

[ryanrumler]

i think your just plain selfish.i think you only own them as a money maker.its not good at all to power feed.