Power Feeding...

Ok I have seen references to this in some posts, but not much else. I have a book that speaks about a feeding schedule for hatchling corns to have them ready for breeding in 18-24 months. I am not sure about details because the author makes only a passing reference to it. In one of my more favorite books written in the 1980's speaks of feeding for optimal growth but does not state what optimal growth is. Why Am I concerned?
I see yearlings in many retail establishments that are smaller than my 4 and 5 month old hatchlings. I recently took one of my babies in to a store as the owner did not believe me. This reverse Okatee female was hatched by me on June 10, 2007 and she is eating right now on average 2 hoppers every 5 days.
She does not look fat, she sheds 2x a month on average so she is growing well. But it raises the question...Obviously this is what everyone would call power feeding. Will this have any long term or short term negative effects on the snakes? I do not feed my adults like this, but when they are growing like these babies are I feed to maintain the growth I see them doing. I was hoping from input from the forum members old and new alike.
Thanks
Scott

i don't know of any actual studies, more just a few observations by some breeders. they say that "power feeding" shortens lifespan. it may or may not be true. breeding does in fact shorten the lifespan of females, which brings me back to the "observation" of the power feeding/lifespan/breeder thing. so does it if you do not breed? maybe, maybe not. and just about every individual has a different opinion of what power feeding is. if your animal is healthy and not obese, than you are on the right track and to commended.

DragonBoy said:

...but when they are growing like these babies are I feed to maintain the growth I see them doing.

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Don't you see the circularity here? Those babies wouldn't be growing unless you were feeding them. Their growth, by and large, is directly proportional to the amount you feed them. So to say that you are feeding to maintain the growth you are seeing is irrelevant, because the growth you are seeing is a result of your feeding practices to begin with...See how that's circular?

Often times the reason that snakes in stores are smaller is that they are on a maintenance diets. There's no reason for a store to pump them full of food every couple of days when they could feed half as often and still keep the animal relatively healthy. It would just reduce their profit margin because they are paying for more food, the salary of the person who does the feeding and lose the opportunity cost of the time it takes to feed those animals.

DragonBoy said:

but does not state what optimal growth is

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I don't think there is a definition of optimal growth or what it takes to achieve optimal growth. Though, I have my opinion and that is that powerfeeding is not optimal. And I use powerfeeding to refer to feeding more frequently than the commonly used guideline of every 4-5 days for hatchlings. However, I have no idea how the 4-5 day guideline came into existence and how healthy it truly is. So my opinion may be relative anyways. However, the general guidelines that exist seem to produce snakes that grow up plenty quick are healthy so there must be some basis for it.

I don't know whether anyone knows what the long and/or short-term consequences of powerfeeding may be. However, if a female is bred at 18-24 months simply because she weighs enough and then experiences issues like egg binding because she wasn't mature enough afterall, then I would say that is a negative consequence. If a snake ends up living a shorter life because of powerfeeding, then I would say that is a negative consequence. But there is no way to know for sure that those things will happen and there's no way to know for sure what the cause was.

For me, powerfeeding is sort of like cohabitating...I don't see any immediate benefits but I do see plenty of potential for things to go wrong, so I just don't do it.