"Power Feeding"

Thanks for the feedback ^^ I'll probably try a 5 day schedule like stated

I feed every 7 days except the new pied girl at day 5 she is raoming looking for food so I feed here when she is in hunt mode :) but she is a pig and would be easy to power feed her

We feed every 4 with makes up to 600g and females up to 1500g then they go to every 8.

I was under the impression that power feeding was feeding more than what is appropriate for their size more often and for a long period of time in order to make them bigger quicker? :confused:

I could be wrong.....

I offer them appropriate sized food sometimes every 2-3 days, sometimes every 8-10 days. I don't keep a rigid schedule when feeding; there is no "feeding day" here. The one thing I have noticed by doing this is the feeding response....the rat is usually struck within 10 seconds. If they look hungry, I offer. If they are hungry, they eat. If they don't strike after about a minute, the rat comes out and I go to the next.
I can find no scientific reasoning anywhere on why it's best to feed every "x" days. The only thing I've been told when I ask about "why?" is that "this is how it has always been done". This is not how it's done in the wild. Yes, I know they aren't in the wild, but they can eat like they are. They know when they are hungry.

IMHO I view power feeding as instead of feeding 15-20% of the body weight a week, feeding 30-40% a week, or 15-20% 2x a week (basically doubling the average amount of food) not so much jamming food down their throat, just feeding more then required. :rolleyes:

As of right now I feed my girl (currently 120 grams and 4 months-ish) about 15 grams (two fuzzies, between 7-8grams each, been this way for a week) on Sundays and Thursdays. She takes fine and still almost seems to be hungry after, im going to continue this for another few weeks, then up the prey size. (As recommended to me by local reptile supplier, A family owned store with employees & volunteers who care alot :P)

I prefer slightly smaller meals more consistently as apposed to a bigger meal less frequently, but thats just me :P

Power feeding IS when you jab food down their throat, litterally. The following video demonstrates power feeding. It is disgusting in my opinion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xpMZooIqkY

Over feeding is what you all are describing, feeding more often, larger prey etc. etc.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lorgakor

Power feeding IS when you jab food down their throat, litterally. The following video demonstrates power feeding. It is disgusting in my opinion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xpMZooIqkY

Over feeding is what you all are describing, feeding more often, larger prey etc. etc.

---

Exactly, what everyone is describing is power offering which can lead to over eating in some snakes.
A snake will eat when it's hungry, offering the snake food when it's obviously wanting to eat is not power feeding.

Thanks everyone for all the replies and what not :)

I can see the difference between Over feeding and power feeding now. I feed my snake an appropriate sized meal every seven days (as in we have a designated feeding day for all the snakes in the household [not all of them mine]). But one of my roommates feeds his snake prey that is 10-15% of it's weight (or a little more) every 3-4 days if he has time to go get more feeders. As soon as his snake defecates he's like "Okay time for another!" It's a hatchling CRB but is already a lot larger than the female and wide in girth (almost 200 grams). I don't know it just makes me nervous.

Also, that video makes me sad. The poor snake can't even take a break in between.

idk how accurate this is, but i heard that power feeding can reduce the lifetime of the snake too, like it might only live for 10 years instead of 20, for example