Stage 3 (Dry Season)

[Starbuck]

Originally Posted by formica

My years raising ant colonies from around the world, have taught me the importance of natural cycles, you cannot keep temperate species for eg, at the same temps and humidity all year round, they become sick and die off within a few years if they are not allowed to hibernate, as opposed to a decade or more life span

an ant is not a vertebrate. My (somewhat limited) understanding of many temperate ant colonies is that the cold/dry/harsh season often coincides with a large die off in colony members, which are then replenished with new offspring during favorable conditions, the point is to protect the reproducing stage... therefore without the cycling of climate, the old ants aren't dying off as they would in nature, resulting in a more dramatic colony die off after a certain number of years, as an ant isn't designed to live that long...? additionally, in many animals, cycling is required to induce the female to ovulate/prepare her for pregnancy, but since you are not planning to breed your sav, I'm failing to see the urgency? wouldn't inducing her to cycle actually shorten her lifespan?

While i have no doubt that you have done lots of reading on the subject, i don't think it is appropriate to draw parallels and conclusions based on invertebrate, colony biology to a single vertebrate organism.