serious question....

[bobbittle]

Wow...unless I misread that sounds like a lot of food. 2 med rats every 3 days for 3 weeks? Power feeding is not good for bps. You really shouldn't offer food every 3 days. At 8 years old I would be offering a small rat every 7-10 days. Power feeding can contribute to the long periods of not eating you were talking about.

Offering them food =/= power feeding.

Power feeding is cramming another mouse/rat into a ball's mouth as they are just finishing swallowing the first one (or second, or so on).

I OFFER my balls as much as they want, once a week. They typically will not overeat. If they eat a little much, they don't eat the next week.

After a 6+ month period off feed I'd offer as much food as the OP too.