Not sure where the SHE comes in. I'm a male, but anyway.

Nature doesn't necessarily translate to healthy herp husbandry.

Yes, in nature, they will eat as much as they can whenever they can. Luckily in captive herp keeping, they have food available readily, so they don't have to gorge and then hope they find food later. Just because they do it in nature doesn't make it healthy for them. Breeding at 9 months old may happen in nature, and it might help the species by creating more offspring , but its definitely NOT healthy for the snake. Proper husbandry is not replicating what the animal would go through in the wild.

I have read quite a bit about corn snakes, including the Munson Plan, created by a breeder to promote quick growth. He recommends 1 pinky every 4 days for hatchlings, not 2-3 every 3-5 days. And even Munson's ideas are considered over feeding my most people.

I have been keeping reptiles for 30 years, I just never bought food that far in advance before. I can't remember what ages different snakes were when I bumped them up to their next size prey, I always judged by their current size, appetite, how long before defecating after eating, etc etc.

I weigh my snakes to keep track in case they develop some sort of health issue. If a snake goes off feed, I want more of an indicator of weight loss than just looking at the snake and guessing.

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