Hi Shannon!

Don't be embarrassed about your question, it's a common thought among us newbies. Unfortunately, it's also the reason so many of us fail, and/or the reason our captives don't achieve their maximum potential.



We naturally think that as keepers we should control our captives' environment. To some extent this is true, but, the main goal, I believe, is to give our captives plenty of choices and let them do the controlling, decision making. This is what I was referring to in my first reply to RoyalBP, when I said, "Sounds like you might already be aware of how broad temperature ranges are beneficial to their metabolism." and "I think that now you've given him a broader temp range, if you'll watch his weight and adjust prey size/amount as you go, you'll start seeing a change."



If I'm not mistaken, I see/understand your train of thought. Sounds to me that you're thinking that if a sav is only fed once a week we should, could, adjust temp settings to increase/decrease its metabolism, depending on if we want the sav to lose weight, gain weight or simply maintain weight.



I feel that you're actually thinking as a good keeper, however, not as a good monitor. The word "monitor" can have various meanings in this aspect, but I'm mostly referring to the animal.



That's just my thoughts, my 2 cents' worth, on your question.



Take care!

HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,

this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:

Appalachian American

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