Girth of the head and shoulders is all that matters? What?

[pythoncrazy]

"They do the brunt of their growth when they're young and it's best to graduate their meal size as soon as they're able to move up because they need all the protein and calcium they can get. My black pastel male hatched in May of this year and is already taking small to nearly medium sized rats. He hasn't been powerfed. He's just been offered meals that graduate with his growth. Keep in mind, too, that when you're gauging rats' sizes you only need to concern yourself with the girth of the head and shoulders on the deceased rodent." Personally i've never heard of a five month old ball python eating small rats, even on the smaller side let alone almost medium rats. Larry from Critter Barn says that most of his yearlings are eating jumbo mice and a jumbo mouse is smaller than a small rat. She also says that it is not power feeding by offering a young snake (baby to juvenile I would assume) a larger meal or feeding them more frequently. She says 3-5 days is good for a young snake. Also she says that only a rats head and shoulders should be taken into account. This goes against what i've heard from a lot of reliable resources and people. I've always heard that a ball python should eat a mouse or rat as big around at the hips as the biggest part of their body, maybe big enough to give a little bulge at the most. So what do you guys think about this? Also her name is Sandy and her website is http://quiettempestreptiles.yolasite.com Has anyone ever heard of her? Because I haven't.

[pythoncrazy]

*edit*
She's got me thinking that some of my juvenile ball pythons are underweight or something under the size they should be. One of them is a one year and three month old female ball python. She's 2.5 feet long and she's eating small rats about 80 grams. Is this about the right size for her age? Just using her for an example but she's got me wondering about the way I raise my ball pythons. Opinions?

[cmack91]

im not judging, but ive noticed while watching my snakes eat that the rodent always ends up thinner once its in the snake from being compressed, a rat thats a 1/2'' or so wider in diameter than my bp never shows hardly at all. plus everyone has different thoughts on feeding, most of the info out there is just "general guidelines" that dont necessarily need to be followed to a "T", just my opinion

after reading your edit, ive heard 10% of the snakes weight is reccomended

[pythoncrazy]

im not judging, but ive noticed while watching my snakes eat that the rodent always ends up thinner once its in the snake from being compressed, a rat thats a 1/2'' or so wider in diameter than my bp never shows hardly at all. plus everyone has different thoughts on feeding, most of the info out there is just "general guidelines" that dont necessarily need to be followed to a "T", just my opinion

after reading your edit, ive heard 10% of the snakes weight is reccomended

Thank you for the useful information