I agree... I did three small feeding a day when some of mine were pups. Then as they got some fat base, I cut back to two times a day. Now they are feeding once a day and they are bigger than they were when I dot them. It was about 5 months before I really noticed the disk starting to get bigger, but they were fat and healthy. My 2 female's are a little over a year old and their disk is about 8" and the male is a few month younger and is about 6". Mine dont grow very fast either, but are growing and always have a good fat base built up. I do notice my females are fatter than my male and I dont expect my male to ever grow digger than any female I have. I have noticed in my other rays, my females are always bigger than my males. Which all of us know, males are always smaller anyway. Nature of Mother Nature it seems in animal life...