Powerfeeding

[Serpent_Nirvana]

This is a very interesting discussion, and I'm glad I stumbled onto it. I've been considering the matter recently as I recently acquired a number of very young snakes that I'm hoping to raise up at a reasonable rate (as opposed to most of my collection, which is largely full-grown).

Now, before reading this, I was worried that feeding one appropriately size prey item every five days was "powerfeeding!" It never even occurred to me that some breeders may actually attempt to "psuedo-assist-feed" in an effort to artificially induce the snake to eat more. To me, this seems like just a terrible idea ... Unless you're hoping for snake liver pate for dinner, I can't think of a single good reason to try it. (Or even "bad" reasons -- dead snakes don't make much money.)

Overall, I think that moderation is key, as with most things -- after reading this discussion, I tend to agree that, for the most part, offering extra prey items to growing youngsters in moderation is probably not terribly detrimental. I don't think it's necessarily the case that the animals can completely self-regulate feed intake -- in other words, even if your baby ball python is WILLING to eat two mice every two days, I still don't think it's a good idea that she should. If, however, she's willing to eat on a five day schedule and take an extra mouse every now and then, I don't think that should be too terribly harmful.

I think, though, that there are more issues being raised here than just how frequently one can safely, healthfully feed a growing baby boid snake ... The link posted by retic720 is fascinating, but I don't think that it is necessarily indicative of what would happen to a baby boid that is grown on a (relatively) rapid feeding schedule. The obese animal in the second necropsy was an adult female. I think it's important to note that she's an adult, because I genuinely wonder if even a fairly heavily fed growing juvenile snake would accumulate such heavy fat reserves. It's a good example of why adult snakes should be very moderately maintained, but I don't know that it necessarily applies to juveniles.

What may apply, though, is another issue altogether, and that is eventual lifespan. That's a debate that can be applied to all species, actually, humans included, but I think it's especially relevant to snakes as they *may* have the most potential to manifest its consequences ... What I'm referring to here is the idea that an animal fed on a moderate starvation diet will live a significantly longer life than one that is fed a normal, maintenance diet. This has been demonstrated in laboratory mice, and anecdotally in snakes. (I have read reports of vipers that lived 40+ years, all of which were fed on extremely lean [>6 meals/year] diets.) There are even some people who deliberately keep themselves on near-starvation diets in the hopes of reaping the supposed benefits.

The topic is controversial as other researchers have suggested that the lifespan increase of ~14 months, while obviously highly significant in mice that only live ~2 years, is, in fact, the maximum lifespan increase for all mammalian species, for which, I think, most of us would probably say that severe caloric restriction isn't really worth it. To my knowledge, the topic hasn't been at all studied in any real research setting in snakes. However, even assuming that it is true, I think it has some ethical considerations as well for us pet owners ... If I feed my pet mouse on a severely restricted diet, he may live longer than any other mouse on the block, but was I really a good pet owner for doing so? For forcing my mouse to live its life in a state of near-starvation? I don't think so, but I'm sure some others would disagree. For snake owners, however, its an interesting concept, especially given the anectodal evidence of elderly, lean vipers and sudden death in obese female breeders. It's also interesting because the concept of "quality of life" is one that isn't discussed in snakes too often, in any context ...

Personally, for my adults I feed on a moderate schedule -- I keep mostly blood pythons, so I generally feed my adults roughly once per month. I also adjust feeding according to each animal's body condition -- if I feel that animal has been looking especially "chunky" lately, I may wait an extra week or two before feeding again, or I feel she is looking "lean," I may give her a rat a week early. I feel this is a bit more natural, as well, as prey probably doesn't walk across an ambush predator's path on a nice, predictable feeding schedule ...

As for babies, I think I'll stick with the "every five day" schedule I've got my young'n's on and hope I get good results from that

Sorry that was so long -- I find this topic extremely interesting ...