Super Dwarf vs Mainland Retic Growth Comparison Study

[Aedryan Methyus]

I just happened upon this page and I thought it was very interesting, so I thought I would share it with you guys. This was a 6 month study done by David Bellis in 2005. He took 3 Super Dwarf Retics and 1 mainland and put them on 4 different feeding schedules for 6 months and documented all of their monthly growth rates. The results definitely seem to show that there is some truth to how it is possible to control Retic sizes through feeding schedules. It would have been even more interesting if he would have also included a 2nd mainland on a bi-weekly feeding schedule, though...

http://reticulatedpython.info/misc2.html

[EL-Ziggy]

Makes perfect sense to me. More food=more growth.

[Sauzo]

Also, SDs are genetically made to subside on smaller less frequent meals as they come from an island with migratory birds being their main food. So bascially trying to feed a snake designed to eat small infrequent meals vs a snake designed to eat much bigger meals and more often is going to give you skewed results.

Not sure why the tester even included a mainland in there. I was more looking at comparing the 3 SDs which seems right as like Ziggy said, more food=more growth.

There is a point though where you go from feeding healthy to purposely stunting an animals growth to keep it small. Plus feeding will also depend on the animal as i have done tests with Caesar from when he was a baby to now. I tried to extend him out to every 2 weeks by giving him a BIG meal. The results were no matter if i fed Caesar a HUGE meal or an appropriate meal, he was back to being a pushy brat after about 10 days. I tried to go 14 days with the HUGE meal and he completely wrecked his face. He had 3 big scrapes on the bottom of his chin, his pits on the right side of his face were split open and almost to the point of being raw, and his jaw was on that side was all swollen too. I fed him every 7 days for 2-3 feedings and his face was back to normal.

Retics like to eat and need to eat. They arent a boa who easily can go with monthly feeding and even 2-3 month fasts. I've talked to a lot of retic owners who have told me the same thing as i was kind of in the mindset of boas when i first got Caesar as i have had boas for years. They told me, retics love to and need to eat.