Quote Originally Posted by mattchibi View Post
Interesting fact (I am by no means an expert, just got into bps a few months ago and im trying to learn more about breeding)

I went into All Reptiles in Toronto, you may be familiar with them, and one of the employees told me this: Apparently for some of the females in that store, they power-feed every 4 days, im assuming its smaller meals, and when I mentioned it would take me at least 2 more years before I could get a baby female to the right size to breed, he advised me to feed every 4 days like them, so that they get big quicker. After reading this forum enough, you know that power-feeding is a pretty big topic and people talk about it frequently, so I knew in my head that 4 days seemed a bit unhealthy. I had only heard of 5-day powerfeeding and even then, I havent really done enough research to know the exact pros and cons or feeding 5 or 7 days.

He proceeded to show me a bumblebee and a pastel female both at around 1 years old and weighing about 1000 grams. I was stunned at how big they were. I was also stunned because both of them had pretty bad stuck sheds, no retained eyecaps though. What do you think of this?

They breed a whole lot of bp's every year and all of the hatchlings seem to be very healthy. The thing I want to know is if any of the breeder females have suffered from this agressive feeding cycle. Just my 2 cents ^^
I do know All reptiles. and I have to say that every time I have visited the store there has been more than one animal with retained sheds on them. power feeding animals although generally increases growth in the first couple of years, for the most part causes obesity that in turn causes many health problems that can be directly related to that condition i.e liver issues. there is a fair amount of anecdotal evidence to support fat snakes being poor breeders as well, so for the most part people stay away from it for the animals health and their own interests as a breeder. that being said feeding every 4 days depending on the individual snake may or may not be power feeding. some snakes just grow faster than others and will not get over weight on a feeding schedule like that. at least not in the first year or so.