Power Feeding

elevation24 · 11-11-03, 03:39 PM

I'd like to know everyone's opinion on power feeding.

Does it even exist? If so, what would you consider power feeding? I mean, how many prey items would have to be given - and how often - for it to be considered power feeding?

What do you base your opinion on?

Big Mike · 11-11-03, 04:05 PM

I think that power feeding is: Intentionally over feeding to promote faster than normal growth.

I don't like the idea of power feeding in order to bring animals up to breeding size at a young age for the purpose of monetary gain.

I do think that it's OK to feed your animals more than the minimum required so that they are happy & healthy...even a little chubby.

daver676 · 11-11-03, 04:06 PM

Now that she has started eating on her own, I feed my 5 month old ball 1 large adult mouse every 5 days. I think this is normal...

eyespy · 11-11-03, 04:12 PM

Yes, I think it definitely exists but is very hard to accurately detect. Many of the snakes brought in for necrospy die as a result of liver and kidney failure which is often linked to too much protein in the diet. But external symptoms in living animals are pretty subtle. Since snakes' fat generally hides among the internal organs and beneath the muscles by the time you notice an "obese" snake organ failure is often fairly advanced.

I base this on 15 years working as a veterinary surgical tech assisting at necropsies. Some years kidney/liver failure with lipidosis ran as high as 70% of all snake mortality in our practice. But pinpointing the exact cause after death is tough. Most of these animals were never seen by a vet during their lifetime so there aren't good records of feeding schedules and husbandry.

tHeGiNo · 11-11-03, 04:42 PM

Eyespy: then, lets use ball pythons as an example, what would you consider overfeeding / powerfeeding?

fateamber · 11-11-03, 04:44 PM

I don't like power feeding, if it can put the snakes health in danger it isn't really worth it, although it depends on how much is too much? There is a diffenrence between feeding slightly extra and feeding a LOT extra.

eyespy · 11-11-03, 05:00 PM

Too many variables to say how much is too much vs. how much is just right. Metabolic rates vary with temperatures, humidity, age, size and physical condition of the snake, stress levels, and who knows what else. We don't even know how much most of these dead snakes were fed which further complicates things.

If the belly bump from the last meal hasn't moved downstream yet and reduced by at least half in size, it's probably too early to feed again and you're just sending food out of the stomach prematurely where it will be absorbed in a not-fully digested state that tends to bunge up liver and kidneys. Let the snake itself be your guide.

Piers · 11-11-03, 05:15 PM

I think animals such as ball pythons in a way should be power fed. Or better put feed as much as you can because as we all know they will eventually go off their food for up to 6 months, and the more fat reserves the better off they will do.
I was at one point feeding my ball pythons every 3 to 5 days and they all went off their food sooner or later. Some for only a month or 2 others up to about 5 months. After all that time they still looked good and healthy and after a meal or 2 you could'nt tell that they ever went off their food.
I feel that had I not fed them as much as they could handle safely when i did I'd of ended up with a lot of thin animals.
Piers.
P.S.
None of my snakes got "pin head". That to me is over feeding.
Pin head is when you feed a snake so much that the body out grows the head, a definite sign of over doing it. The head will eventually catch up.

mykee · 11-11-03, 06:10 PM

My opinion of 'powerfeeding' is tricking your ball into eating more food than it wants to eat. You hear people throwing around words like "pinhead", and "powerfeed" all the time, in my opinion, as long as my snakes will eat what I give them on thier OWN, then I keep feeding them. Some of my 2003 hatchlings eat 3 fuzzies every 5 days, and some that eat one every week. I do not consider that "powerfeeding". In my opinion, an example of "powerfeeding" would be to sew a second rat to the tail of the first rat to make the snake eat both. This is deceiving to the snake, because you are not sure if the snake needed, or even wanted the second item. I have been very lucky with most of my snakes, in the sense that they eat fairly heavily without resorting to such underhanded methods.

elevation24 · 11-11-03, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mykee
In my opinion, an example of "powerfeeding" would be to sew a second rat to the tail of the first rat to make the snake eat both.

OMG hahahhaha

mykee · 11-11-03, 06:54 PM

Don't laugh, it happens A LOT. Many people use this technique to get their balls up to weight.

elevation24 · 11-11-03, 07:06 PM

Christ, I thought it was a joke

Not so funny anymore..... now it's just, errrr... strange, and scary. I never would have imagined.

mykee · 11-11-03, 07:15 PM

When I first got into BP's I admit, I did follow up one rat with a second one. I would wait for my ball to get past the hips of the first food item, and when they opened their mouth, I would gently put the head of the second item in, if they didn't want it, they would pull away, but if they did, they just kept on eating. But FORCING a second item, IMO is just wrong. Kinda gross too. My question to those who do that is this; aren't you worried about the thread or dental floss or whatever it is that you're using getting tied up inside the snake and causing harm?

MouseKilla · 11-11-03, 07:47 PM

I'm just trying to picture someone with a collection of snakes spending hours stitching rats together LOL! I'll say that would be some kind of abusive feeding practice but generally, aside from extreme things like that I'm not sure I believe in the existence of powerfeeding. I think Mykee has it right, if they eat it on their own there's no problem. I am no vet so I'm not basing my opinion on any special knowledge but in my experience a snake that is not hungry will not eat on their own.

Syco · 11-11-03, 10:10 PM

I offer my young BPs a couple of mice every 3 to 4 days, at that point the lump is gone from their last meal and they are hungry! There has been times when they won't eat when it's offered, or they only want 1 mouse. Fine, I don't push it. The adults are given food once a week, sometimes they eat a lot and sometimes they don't eat at all....but if they are hungry they are getting food. Some might say I feed the young ones too often, but they are healthy and not the least bit overweight. I think they use most of it to grow. I've noticed as my snakes get older they seem to slow down on feedings by themselves.