RoryBreaker wrote:El Lobo wrote:The recurring theme here seems to be an attempt to power grow a young animal to produce the largest of the sub-species. This should be discouraged as it will invariably be deleterious to the well-being of the skink, almost certainly leading to a significantly shortened life span. External dimension may increase rapidly but major organs etc. will still develop according to genetic predisposition.
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Power growing occurs naturally in wild reptiles , they call it "the boom and bust cycle". If good seasons occur back to back , year on year, the abundance of food available allows gorging. Long term in captivity, I agree it's not the best practice, but more food in the first 12 months is more beneficial than having too little.
As for making a big skink , it mainly comes down to luck, whether your skink is going to be a Michael Jordan or whether it's going to be a Danny devito.
I accept there can be a naturally occurring cycle with wild reptiles et al. I did note in a later post that I confine my observations to highland blotched, being the local sub-species. Because they are generally born so late in the season cycle they will go into their first brumation very soon after birth, emerging 5-6 months later looking almost exactly the way they looked when born. The wild examples always appear 1-2 years younger than those kept domestically and fed on a consistent diet without attempt to rapidly promote growth.