" Do you think extra meals and smaller in size are better than just a regular routine for that animal? Say if she was eating a large mouse every 10 days in fall, is it better to keep this routine or to increase to 2 small mice every 7 days during the spring?

I think most of us can agree that hatchlings and yearlings and possibly 3rd year animals can use a higher amount of calories do to their growing in length and girth. "

Very much agreed!!!!

I think for females, you should feed them more during breeding season, as laying eggs is extremely taxing on them, and the extra amount of food, in realistic quantities, can only help. I fed males more as well, just because all the trucking around their cage looking for tail can be excessive at times, losing some weight here and there. I think feeding smaller items is a great idea. Back when I bred, I would feed a mixture of rat fuzzies/pups along with adult mice to my female breeders. All I did was feed them extra during the week, say every Sunday and Wednesday, instead of just Sundays. Sometimes multiple food items, sometimes just one item, depending on how they looked in terms of their weight. Small food items being fed would be equivalent. I usually fed small food items mostly right after egg laying, and gradually increased the size over a week or so. I also kept them in 20 gallon long aquariums, vs. sweaterboxes. The aquariums provided a longer area for crawling then the sweaterboxes I used. All of those factors together and I had wonderful results.

So yes, in my opinion, extra meals, be it normal or smaller sized, is very much needed for breeding females.
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Genesis 1:1

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