Power Feeding???@?

[samjhudson]

Now, before I get absolutely slammed, I know that theres been hundreds of power feeding threads, in fact I think I've read most of them!

I just want to ask what I think is a simple question.

What exactly, are the "very bad things" that will happen if you powerfeed your snake?

Now, I have no intention of ramming food down the throat of my new pet, nor do I need to speed up his growth for breeding. I am, however, a man with an interest in biology, chemistry and nutrition, so am intrigued by the way that everyone agrees that powerfeeding is a bad thing, but no-one seems to say why.

Most people will make a vague mention of "shortening life span", but neglect to say why this would be the case

Now, I don't mean any disrespect to anyone on this forum, on the contrary, the advice and knowledge I have found here have been amazingly helpful - I really couldn't have contemplated buying a corn snake if it wasn't for the information here. I would just like this little gap in my knowledge filled in.

Thank you in advance
Peace
Sam

 

[sfaoldguy]

Well, most of the seriously power fed snakes I have heard of die within their first 5 years.

 

[samjhudson]

any idea why?

 

[tyflier]

Power feeding can result in regurgitations. If your snake has too much food in it's belly, it can cause stress which can result in regurgitations or incomplete digestion. Regurges can kill your snake.

It takes approximately 3 days(give or take) for a snake to completely digest it's meal. If you feed another meal before the first is completely digested, you run the risk of regurgitation. If you feed a prey item that is too large for the snake, you run the same risk. This is especially true of younger snakes when someone is attempting to feed them aggressively in order for them to grow faster.

Since snakes grow in accordance with the amount of food they eat, more/larger feedings translates to faster growth. I am unaware of any documented physical problems resulting from growing too large too quickly, but I am sure someone else will have more information.

 

[samjhudson]

thats a great start! thank you.

 

[sfaoldguy]

Well, one of the women that worked at the vets office and I had a conversation about this the other day. She said something about fatty deposits on the liver and other places that caused the snakes internal organs to not function properly and they end up dying. Sorry that I don't remember all of the specifics. She was someone I knew from a long time ago so it was more of a "hi how's things been going" kind of thing.

 

[CornSnakeManiac]

As sfaoldguy heard, it can cause the snake to become obese. It can also cause it to die of kidney failure after about 5 or 10 years. :uhoh:

 

[Lennycorn]

I just want to ask what I think is a simple question.

What exactly, are the "very bad things" that will happen if you powerfeed your snake?

Well, most of the seriously power fed snakes I have heard of die within their first 5 years.

any idea why?

From overfeeding...... :sidestep:

 

[ratsncorns]

I have also read somewhere that the organ growth cannot keep up with the growth of the snake, which can cause organ failure as they are put under pressure to grow faster than they are meant to.

 

[sfaoldguy]

From overfeeding...... :sidestep:

That about sums it up... :roflmao:

 

[Shade]

Now I don't know anything about anything when it comes to this stuff, but this is just my logical assumption. It might be completely wrong.

My guess is that powerfeeding is bad because it taxes the organs involved far too heavily far too fast, resulting in a shortened period of function. These organs are still probably developing so overloading them with food to process, etc, and sending them into overdrive probably reduces the period in which they can remain functional drastically.

I think of it like doing a really intense workout session without stretching first.

 

[tyflier]

Now I don't know anything about anything when it comes to this stuff, but this is just my logical assumption. It might be completely wrong.

My guess is that powerfeeding is bad because it taxes the organs involved far too heavily far too fast, resulting in a shortened period of function. These organs are still probably developing so overloading them with food to process, etc, and sending them into overdrive probably reduces the period in which they can remain functional drastically.

I think of it like doing a really intense workout session without stretching first.

I don't know if that is true, and here is why I say that.

A snake's growth rate is dependant entirely upon the amount of food it eats, NOT on the length of time it is alive. In Kathy Love's book, The Comprehensive Guide, she mentions a documented record wherein a female hatchling was successfully brought to breeding size in a record 18 months, with no ill effects on the snake. Granted, this would need to take place in a completely controlled setting and under ideal conditions to be successful. But it seems to me that if it CAN be done successfully, that would rule out any sort of organ-specific deterioration.

Also, in Don Soderberg's book Cornsnakes in Captivity, he mentions regurgitation as the biggest threat to a powerfed snake.

It seems to me, however, I am certainly no biologist, that if a snake's growth is directly related to it's food intake, that growth would be related in all aspects, such as physical appearance, length, weight, and organ size. It doesn't seem likely that food intake would inhibit organ growth while at the same time encourage body growth. It seems more likely that there are actual health issues developed in the organs such as fatty deposits, that might develope from too much food consumption.

But again...much like you, I really don't know. I am guessing.

I do know of cases around here where rainbow trout are grown specifically to be trophy sized fish. They are fed an hormone-rich diet which causes extreme body growth, but does not accelerate organ growth. These fish end up being absolutely MONSTROUS in size, but have normal sized hearts, lungs, livers, stomaches, etc. So not only can these fish physically not eat enough calories to survive for long periods of time, they cannot swim very far or very fast, and hooking into one is like reeling in a log, because their aerobic capacity is so limited, they simply cannot put up a fight. But that is from the ingestion of hormones, not balanced food items...

 

[Jessicat]

A reasonable analogy that I can come up with is breeding feeder mice. This is not really the same thing, over feeding vs. over breeding, but I think the tax on the body is similar enough to make the comparison.
A female mouse that delivers litter after litter will die much sooner than a female mouse who has time to rest in between litters. Before I understood this I had a female that died after her third litter. She just couldn't handle the stress on her body.
I suppose this might be a bit of a stretch. It makes sense to me though.

 

[Shade]

I don't know if that is true, and here is why I say that.

A snake's growth rate is dependant entirely upon the amount of food it eats, NOT on the length of time it is alive. In Kathy Love's book, The Comprehensive Guide, she mentions a documented record wherein a female hatchling was successfully brought to breeding size in a record 18 months, with no ill effects on the snake. Granted, this would need to take place in a completely controlled setting and under ideal conditions to be successful. But it seems to me that if it CAN be done successfully, that would rule out any sort of organ-specific deterioration.

Also, in Don Soderberg's book Cornsnakes in Captivity, he mentions regurgitation as the biggest threat to a powerfed snake.

It seems to me, however, I am certainly no biologist, that if a snake's growth is directly related to it's food intake, that growth would be related in all aspects, such as physical appearance, length, weight, and organ size. It doesn't seem likely that food intake would inhibit organ growth while at the same time encourage body growth. It seems more likely that there are actual health issues developed in the organs such as fatty deposits, that might develope from too much food consumption.

But again...much like you, I really don't know. I am guessing.

I do know of cases around here where rainbow trout are grown specifically to be trophy sized fish. They are fed an hormone-rich diet which causes extreme body growth, but does not accelerate organ growth. These fish end up being absolutely MONSTROUS in size, but have normal sized hearts, lungs, livers, stomaches, etc. So not only can these fish physically not eat enough calories to survive for long periods of time, they cannot swim very far or very fast, and hooking into one is like reeling in a log, because their aerobic capacity is so limited, they simply cannot put up a fight. But that is from the ingestion of hormones, not balanced food items...

You're probably right. Thanks for posting that.

 

[larryg]

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about how eating less is directly related to living longer. Dogs that are fed too much have more health problems and don't live as long. I tend to think of it like a car engine... it will go fast some of the time, but you don't want to constantly put the pedal to the metal, or you'll burn out the engine pretty quickly, as most engines aren't designed for race cars. Similarly, I think animals grow in spurts, and just because they CAN grow at an "accelerated" rate doesn't mean that this should be overdone and pushed to the max.

I would add that all animals, when young, feed more frequently, and I don't have a problem with feeding hatchlings every few days. But I wouldn't do that for more than a month or two. Then I'd drop back to every 4 to 5 days, etc. Some people get carried away and think you can only feed a hatchling once a week or you'll be a bad person. The term "power feeding" doesn't have one universal meaning, and it tends to confuse people more than explain anything. You're better off telling people "You feed your snakes too much/too often, and here's why...", instead of pinning a label on them and ostracizing them.

 

[samjhudson]

Ok, cool, I've had some great responses

Lennycorn, I have a feeling you knew what I meant, but I'll explain myself anyway.

Overfeeding may be the action that causes death, but it isn't the cause itself. If I can use another example, lets slit our wrists.....

Slitting your wrists may be the ACTION that causes death, but the CAUSE would be massive blood loss......do you see what I'm saying?

I have some more questions that I'd like to know the answer to, but I've opened the corner and peaked into this can of worms and realised that I can't possibly stomach it all, certainly not in one go anyway. Besides, I don't even like worms.....

Thank you for sharing your knowledge guys
Peace
Sam