Feeding Chart

[Starscream]

I think we shouldn't dismiss it immediately because it is different than what we're used to seeing.

What would be the benefits of a schedule like this? They wouldn't grow as quickly, and it would take longer to achieve breeding size, so that wouldn't be it.

However, "Growth verses lifespan: perspectives from evolutionary ecology" states that there are both benefits and drawbacks to rapid growth and "catch-up" growth in many animals. The benefits of rapid growth are decreased predation in the wild, and increased likelihood of early breeding. The drawback of rapid growth is linked to reduced lifespan and and weaknesses in body structures. "Rapidly grown structures may also be more proneto developmental errors or weaknesses... such that the fast-growing animal issacrificing ‘quality’ for ‘speed’.," states the study mentioned above.

Playing catch-up, to where the animal is provided with less food at earlier stages of its life, and then is provided with more later, also has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. These animals are able to achieve equal to lesser growth than their heavily fed counterparts, but it has been found that "[c]ell numbers in key organs can become fixedrelatively early in development," which means that their organs may remain smaller even when then fed to catch up to the normal adult size: "The weight gained by animals during periods ofcatch-up growth tends to be biased towards more rapidaccumulation of fat".

As we all know, excessive fat in snakes isn't always that great; in breeding it has been linked to reduced clutch sizes and infertility in females, and generally linked to fatty liver disease.

In "Patterns of blood flow during the postprandial response in ball pythons,Python regius", blood flow and liver size is measured to determine when the metabolic rate of ball pythons is returned back to fasting rates. It was found that blood flow increased rapidly after a feeding, reaching its peak with 2-3 days, then slowly fell back to fasting rates. It took anywhere between 10 and 20 days for blood flow to return to normal, depending on the artery measured. With this, we know that their bodies undergo heavy changes after a feeding, and if fed once weekly when older, are not allowed to go back to normal standing rates.

While I'm not actually arguing in favor of this particular feeding schedule (it's still a bit too rigid for my tastes), it's not something to disregard straight away. Maybe for breeders, this particular schedule wouldn't be ideal, but for those of us hoping to raise a happy, healthy animal, maybe we should be looking at models like these, with some variation in size and frequency occasionally.

IDK. Was kind of thinking aloud here.