Continuing the discussion from Grow 'em Bigger, Faster…Breed sooner!:
This likely wouldn’t work since it’s intended for specifically ball pythons and different snakes digestive systems are different. It could work but I wouldn’t recommend anyone try it until it’s been tested. There’s also no benefit to it for a pet keeper and little benefit to the average hobbyist.
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Unlikely, especially since kingsnakes are primarily evolved to eat lizards and snakes. That and they already have faster metabolisms. You will likely just make your kingsnake fat and shorten its lifespan. There is no reason to rush things to breeding size.
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Not to start a debate but for clarification it wouldn’t cause obesity. It’s the same amount of food in different amounts. The lack of breaks in between food could have an effect but I’m not sure what. I agree that it likely isn’t the same for colubrids but there’s no benefit for it here.
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The problem with this is that you won’t be able to get baby mice small enough for this to work. You would need to cut them into pieces, and then you would likely have malnutrition if you did that. Kingsnake babies are much smaller than BPs at hatching. If you fed a pinky to them everyday they would get fat. But as stated, it likely won’t work the same due to the differences in metabolisms. That and there is no benefit to risk it.
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The same amount of calories spread over a longer time period is no different, nutrition-wise, as getting all the calories all at once. If I eat 300 calories every hour for 10 hours, I take in 3000 calories. If I eat three meals at 1000 calories each, I take in 3000 calories. If I eat a single large 3000 calorie meal, I take in 3000 calories.
A single pink every five days is nutritionally the same as a fifth of a pink every day for five days
So there is no concern about malnutrition
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That is true, but I was more of thinking what if they only feed pinky legs/tails or something similarly lacking in much calcium/bones. The most nutritional part of a pink are the organs, and I would doubt someone that cuts them into pieces would wanna feed something that messy. They might not get them to take a gooey piece of abdomen as well. If you were to just feed pinky limbs then there may be a problem with proper vitamins being supplied. In terms of calories they would be fine, but I am not sure about vitamins is more of what I meant about malnutrition. Like if you only feed bits of fish flesh to a garter snake and nothing else, they can have vitamin deficiencies. I would imagine something similar could happen with this.
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This is a different issue. The main fish that are used as feeders all tend to be species that carry the enzyme thiaminase. This enzyme actively cleaves thiamine into inert forms. So the vitamin deficiency is not because the proper nutrients are not being supplied, it is because the animal is being fed something that is actively stripping vitamins from them
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