I think the maintenance feeding option is healthy and wise for males, and probably OK for females if you are not going to breed.
At this point, I have a relatively calm snake that seems to be growing slowly and eating a small rat every 7-10 days. It has really been 7 day spaces with an early on 4 day space. The 10 day space is coming this round. I'm going to let him shed.
Without doing anything drastic, you can somewhat put your animal into a slower cycle with feeding if you use some season cues. Less daylight, slightly lower temps and a little longer between meals.
I'm not sure the first year is the time to practice that however. The diet of a growing snake varies a great deal in the wild and they are not as reliant on the migrations, birthing patterns and habits of other animals when young. They tend to have more to choose from year round so I plan to continue the course.
It will be interesting to see how our little group of SD and SD X Dwarf keepers does when we look at growth and size toward adulthood.
I certainly haven't forgotten about my 3 other species, but this is newer ground and I enjoy the company!
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