Need to vent....

[zina10]

And I want to apologize if I'm a little TO into all this today. I'm going to take a step back...

What I've experienced today is not meant as an excuse, but more as a explanation..

I've seen the two "extremes" in horses and today I've seen the worst of both of it. Couple 5 year old horses of a former acquaintance. Sent to slaughter cause they were "done" at that age. They are grown SUPER fast with dense concentrates, pushed so they win shows very young. Usually get joint injections at 2 to 3 years old because already they are breaking down. Skeletal, ligament and joints don't hold up. But its rather normal and expected. They get replaced rapidly. I helped pull one of them out of his mother years ago..

On the way to take care of my horse I notice a emaciated horse down in a nearby field. Sadly, you see skinny ones very often around here. No one cares, no one comes out if you call it in. I turned around and drove by again, she is still down, no movement, thinking that horse is dead..I turn around again and drive by one more time (there was nowhere to stop there) and she lifts a head, gets on her chest and turns around to look at me. But she looks bad. I'm in a hurry but make a point with myself to check on her on the way back. I drive back home not 2 hours later to see a backhoe in that field, the arm of it up high and the white skinny mare HANGING IN THE AIR by her neck. I suppose they shot her, dug a hole and were moving her as I drove by, why they had to raise her up in the air rather then just to drag her, I don't know. But it keeps haunting me. The way she looked at me earlier. And then the sight as I drove by. Now I wish I had stopped, wish I had gotten someone to go check on her. Although they probably killed her shortly after I drove past and at least I wasn't there for that.

There is a lot we don't know about the snakes system. How its affected by over feeding. Under feeding is easier to see...stunted, bony, starved. Overfed and grown to fast just looks like a big snake. But to me, common sense dictates that neither extreme is a good thing for long term health and soundness.

So, apologies for going off on a tangent and apologies for going "off topic" ..

[dakski]

New to this thread, but as a non-breeder, 3 snake family, who has kept snakes for more than half my life (now 37 years old), and keeps three different species, it can be confusing and much is open to interpretation.

So much depends on interpretation and applying X rule to one species, may not work for another species.

I get why everyone is so excited about this thread.

My BCI, for example, Behira, is a 1 1/2 year old female, and I already have her on smaller meals than she could easily take, every two weeks (she is about 700G and I feed about 60G small rats now, give or take). My BP at 700G was still being offered every week, but was starting to regulate herself, or so it seemed, by refusing every 3 times or so.

My Corn, could easily eat a weaned rat, or bigger, at 640G, but I keep him on 30G mice every week. Rats are not normal food for corns and they can get fat easy, so smaller meals more frequently work for them.

Anyway, the point is, I had to do a lot of research on both what to and how often to feed everyone, who to listen to, and what breeder(s) to buy from.

I tend to believe for an adult snake, less (either size or frequency) is more, assuming they are healthy and maintaining weight. That does seem to be true, to me anyway.

I do not think this applies to young snakes who are still growing, or at least not to the same degree. A growing animal needs to eat enough to continue to grow at a good rate. Of course "good rate" is open to interpretation.

Jeff Ronne documented feeding BCI's a large meal every week, or more, essentially power feeding, to get them full grown and ready to breed fast. If I recall, none, if only a few maybe, lived to be 5!

Apparently their organs could not grow as fast as their bodies.

But that's BCI's. I have heard of breeders getting corn snakes up to size quickly and they do not seem to do as badly.

In the wild, the snakes that do survive, feed opportunistically, not regularly. They breed. That tells me that in general, again, less is more. It's not like nature is saying okay, this 3 year old female is going to need a rat that's 100G, etc.

Not that we should mimic nature at home. We have an opportunity as keepers and breeders to give optimal care to our animals.

Bottom line: Research, research, research. Not just your species, but breeders, and know who you are getting advice from. Knowledge is power.