I have to follow suit with Jlassiter. The way i keep my snakes they will never get fat.



My understanding from reading his posts is he gives his temperature choices, allows groups to live together and that allows they to breed whenever they are ready.



Put your snakes in a box and take away any of these choices you might get fat snakes. ...heck lets go the opposite route. Keep the snakes at a steady 76-80 during summer and force cool them in winter and house them individually...I can see why some people are afriad of fat snakes. LOL!





Also thought of one other thing that i have been doing. Since i keep some of my breeders in more than just pairs (some 3-4 in a unit) they are more active. Maybe it is the stimulation. Whatever it is, it cause them to move about more rather than live a sedentary life and not have any excercise or other stimulation.





Since i come from a fitness backround I have some facts regarding humans and dieting. In the past there where many weight loss dits that people bought into. How our body works has to be understood as well. NOW it is known you should feed your body with sevral small meals throughout the day to help burn fat.



What happens is the body has a switch (kinda like when us humans used to have famines) ..If you starve the body and then feed it. You are training teh body to store more BF. It will hold onto more bodyfat in protecting itself from the next famine/diet



...I don't know if any of this relates to snakes or not. But it is not as simple as restricting calories ..even for lone sedentary snake kept by itself with forced cooling!



"There is no real right or wrong way, just results that balance the needs of the animal against the expectation of the keeper.



So to Tony and others. While this old adage of "there is no real right or wrong way". I don't agree with that. Because there is bad, subpar, good, better, BETTER and best we know how.

It comes down to what we know and IF we know hor. There is always a better way. To improve in keeping any animal or EVEN taking care of our own bodies there is a right and wrong. The whole things boils down either being ignorant or just plain lazy.



As far as humans and their ability to learn. Heck well, back in the 60's my parents took vitamins when there weren't many people taking supplements. I took them to school and there was an uproar. The school called my parents and asked why they feel the need to give me pills when all the nutrients should be taken from the food we eat.



People live longer today. In the 70's i started working in health clubs and gyms. People walking by thought we were queer because we looked at ourselves in the mirror because at ourselves while lifting weights..They didn't understand we were looking at our form.



Point here is people take a while to come around to certain new ideas. There will be those that buck progress even though it makes sense. It will take a few years..but in herpetoculture this will change. The concepts suggested here FR, myself and others of giving choices in temps, humidity, bonded kings living in groups and breeding when they want will be pretty common knowledge and husbandry fro healthier captives..
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Observing them in a cage by themsleves with set temps and deciding when to feed is hardly natural or healthy for the snakes.















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