Would you purchase from a breeder who advocates power feeding?

[Oxylepy]

I'm just wondering because when I got my fire and pastel a couple years back the breeder told me to feed them like 2-3 hoppers every 3 days. Then someone had come in with a fire that they had bought from him and he told me that it's the size a snake should be at 2-3 months (it looked about 500g).

I brought up the risk of it causing the snakes to be obese and how it leads to a shorter life span, and he told me that he'd rather have a female breed for him sooner than live to be 20 years old.

[redstormlax12]

In my honest opinon, that breeder was a scumbag. People like that are in it for the love of the herps, they're just trying to make some money as fast as they can, even if that means having and obese snake with a shortened life span. I honestly think its cruelty to power feed. They dont really have an off switch for feeding. Snakes eat when they can because they dont know when the next meal is coming, so instincts tell them to take the prey when its there.

In my opinon, we shouldnt power feed out herps. It is animal cruelty. I would love for a female or two to get big early, but even then i may wait for her sex organs to mature more. Even the big breeders that make a profit from breeding do it because they love the herps, not because they just want to make a quick buck.

There are alot of sleezy people out there and in my opinon, that guy is one of the many.

[maverickgtr]

I'd pay more to go to a different breeder than buy from someone that would rather shorten an animal's life for extra money than let the animal be healthy. That breeder sounds like a total jerk.

[MarkS]

There is actually no real evidence that power feeding will shorten their lifespan. It's assumed that it will due to experiments on other animals, but there is no actual proof that power feeding will shorten a ball pythons life.

I think that it's difficult to overfeed babies, they're constantly growing and putting all of the food they eat into growth, however if you continue feeding the same way once they reach adulthood, they will become obese, and obese snakes do not breed well.

Personally I like to keep my hatchlings on the hungry side because I think it's easier to get them switched to frozen thawed that way, but I certainly wouldn't call the breeder a scumbag because he likes to feed a lot.

[wilomn]

Until I had actual experience or could see actual physical results from long term powerfeeding to more than a few snakes, I'd probably keep my scumbagging to a minimum.

It sort of sucks when you call someone a scumbag and it turns out you're an ignorant lout who thinks he should be right but has had 2 snakes for a year and read a couple of articles by other ignorant louts who also had a bunch of emotion and no facts at all.

But that's just me. The rest of you feel free to lout away.

[musicalKeyes]

The whole power-feeding thing doesn't really bother me one way or the other, because we don't know one way or the other if it truly affects a snake's quality of life, but the "rather having a snake breed sooner than live until twenty", whether power feeding affects it or no, does bother me. Maybe I wouldn't call him a scumbag, but that does seem a bit off.

[maverickgtr]

There's no evidence for power feeding one way or another with snakes. But when asked, the breeder put breeding over the health of the animal. To me, that makes him a jerk. If I took that out of context or misunderstood, please correct me and I will eat my words. I haven't met this breeder but based on the statement of "[I]'d rather have a female breed for [me] sooner than live to be 20 years old." and considering the captive life span on a ball python is 20-30 years, I'd call him a jerk and wouldn't do business with him.

[Beardedragon]

No, I would stay from away from this breeder.

[Jason Bowden]

Over fed boas don't live long healthy lives because they can't process the fat like a python does. So, I guess I'm saying that fat "snakes" aren't healthy. But, I don't know that an over weight/fat ball python is unhealthy. I've seen several skinny ball pythons that were not healthy though. IMO

[kellysballs]

On the "facts" thing, the info I have is I guess technically hearsay.

In Daytona 2007/8 at the Friday night talk on Boas, Dave Barker gave a power point presentation on the anatomy of boas. He spoke about the reproductive tract and how it worked. He also stated that obese boas do not breed well because the fat in their bodies crowds out the internal organs giving no room for folicles and embryos to develop.

The following year the Friday night talk was on Blood pythons, this time Kara and Tracey Barker where the main speakers. They also commented on how obese females have higher instances of laying slugs for the same reasons outlined by Dave the previous year.

Now for me with the info given at those two symposiums coupled with info from vets about how to improve a female (insert animal here) reproductive health. I would say that fat females don't breed as well as females with proper body weight. (no matter if it is a ball, boa, lizard, dog, cat ect.....)

Would I call someone who power feeds a scumbag? No, I think that's a little extreme. However, I do believe that they are hurting the long term general and reproductive health of their animals. Which in turn will bite them in their wallet eventually.

To answer the question, yes I would buy a neonate or yearling since obesity can be fixed by dieting and if it is fixed young enough then their should be no long term effects on the animal (based on my knowledge of the subject).