Posted by:
VoodooDragon
at Wed Jun 18 13:53:39 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by VoodooDragon ]
"Power Feeding" is overfeeding a snake (usually a female) more food that it should have for the sole purpose of getting it to breeding weight.
For example:
A normal BP feeding schedule (1/week, then 1/two weeks) will get her to breeding size in about 3 years.
Say you have a neat snake that you think you can breed and sell her offspring for a good profit. You feed her a rodent about every 3 or 4 days when young, then every 7-9 days when adult. This'll usually make her breedable in about 2 years.
However, powerfeeding usually causes things like (now I'm not positive on if I get this right or not, but you get the idea) liver damage, weak bones, things like that.
It GREATLY reduces their life spans and ability to fend of diseases because the body becomes so stressed by being forced to grow at an unnatural rate.
Short-term (like getting a runt up to healthy weight) won't do long-term damage. But two years straight . . .
Also, snakes' systems need time between each meal to replenish all those little digestive flowers and bugs, hehe. If fed too often, they might not be able to digest properly, and will usually regurg at first, until their metabolism speeds way up to compensate.
Basically, PFing speeds their metabolism up (shortening life span) and puts a strain on their organs, to summarize.
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-Irish
My Snakes
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RE: While we're on the subject of feeding... - VoodooDragon, Wed Jun 18 13:53:39 2003