I don't handle animals that go off feed, and here's my reasons why. In the Barker's book, they talk about WC females as an example.

A WC female that is rarely handled and left alone, can go a LONG time without feeding and still maintain her weight, losing very little weight.

A WC female that's in a pet store being pulled out, handled daily, people picking her up, etc - that started at the same weight as the WC female in the first example, starts to lose weight quickly and gets into very poor condition.

While I don't have any WC animals in my collection, my thoughts are that by eliminating all but maintenance handling, I am keeping the stress levels of a fasting animal minimal and allowing them to stay as healthy as possible.

Whether there's any merit to how I do things, I don't know. But it makes sense to me, and none have ever lost significant weight, even when fasting for extended periods. I think we all have one or two in our collection that are meant to keep us humble and not feel like keeping these animals is a breeze.

Just my