Quote Originally Posted by bns View Post
Excess is stored as fat. The difference in how that store is used is what I'm talking about. Large infrequent meals with seasonal fasting triggers stores to be used as growth vs many small meals that are more likely to be stored as fat and not used towards growth. (-This depends on age, seasonality etc -covered that earlier...)



Yes, he would have hit a plateau but it would have occurred years later.


Sounds about right to me.

Why the change?
If a snake uses a larger percentage of smaller meal once a month, would they not have less excess to store vs a large meal every 3 months? And then, if they're fed seasonally, have even less excess either way? I suppose maybe feeding mainly smaller meals throughout the year, with one or two big meals leading up to a fast would also be a valid approach, at least for some individuals.

And yes, I definitely notice a difference between my conservatively-fed boas and Cloud when I first got them. Two 2015's and a 2016, none of which have reached a plateau in growth yet, though none have reached 6' yet. In fact, this year they've been hitting record growth rates.

I changed Dominika's feeding, because everyone seemed to agree they should get smaller more frequent meals during courtship and while gravid. And since her gravid period is going to line up with her usual fasting period...she'll be eating this winter. By the time she were to give birth and had enough meals in her to get her back up to shape, we'll be back into spring. She's not due until end of Nov or early Dec. BUT...if she proves not to have become gravid by end of December I'll give her a few normal sized meals and then fast her the remaining couple months of winter.