Setting up a feeding plan: fewer notes, more overview
How to record feedings so that intervals, refusals and the weight curve end up fitting together by themselves.
With a single animal you still remember the last feeding. With three animals on different intervals (and one mid-shed) it gets confusing. A properly kept plan costs two minutes a week and later answers questions you could otherwise only guess at.
The interval belongs in the system, not in your head
Enter feeding as a recurring appointment, not as a one-off note. The interval depends on species, age and season: juveniles eat more often than adults, and before brumation the interval lengthens anyway. What matters is less the perfect figure than the regularity with which you review it.
In ReptiCare you create an appointment of the type Feeding for this and choose the repetition: Daily, weekly, fortnightly or a custom interval in days. Once you complete the appointment, the next one is created automatically.
Tick off refusals too
The reflex is simply to delete a feeding that was not taken. But that removes exactly the information that will matter later. Tick the appointment off instead and mark it food refused. From these entries the refusal rate in the record is built and that shows in black and white whether the past weeks are out of the ordinary or the animal is simply following its usual rhythm.
What the record reveals afterwards
Once enough completed appointments are recorded, the app works out:
- the average interval between feedings,
- how many feedings were refused,
- when the last accepted feeding was.
Together with the weight curve this gives a usable picture. Two refused feedings at a stable weight are usually unremarkable; the same two with a falling curve are a reason to look more closely.
It pays off at the vet
“He has been eating badly for a while” helps little in the consulting room. “Seven of ten feedings refused since 12 May, weight down from 412 to 371 grams” is a basis. The CSV export of the records can be printed or sent in advance.
The app’s prompts are rules of thumb and do not replace a veterinary assessment. Some things (brumation, an approaching shed, pregnancy) explain an oddity quite harmlessly.