BIG gorl, but HOW big? (Hey, y'all miss me??)

Yoooo hey y'all it has been a WHILE since I posted here. Crazy stuff has been my life over the last couple years. Had another baby. Bought 20 acres about 30 minutes away from our current city and now we're starting our dream hobby farm! Got more chickens and also some geese. Downsized the collection a LOT because we will be living on a tiny 10X20 cabin with naught but solar power and a generator for a couple years while we build our permanent home and add infrastructure to the farm.

But you know, I still had to keep my favs, and also wanted to have potential babies in the future, so rn we still have Riddle, Bean, and Strudel. All three shed this week and all three just ate. Seems like Bean is ready to graduate to medium rats, but the real question, and the reason I'm posting is: I think maybe Strudel needs to be moved up to large sized rats. Looking at them in the store I thought, "nah, that's surely too big, isn't it?" but comparing the medium rat to her now, i'm second guessing. A quick browse through old threads shows, as usual, that it's a mixed bag so I thought I'd provide some visuals:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...506_221003.jpg

Here she is mid squeeze. That is NOT the thickest part of her, only about the first third of her body and still seems a little small.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...506_223343.jpg

Post swallow, still realigning her jaw and still cruising. Rat has left hardly a bump to be seen.

So, next size up??

Sure, if you like morbidly obese snakes. I can't see a ball python needing to eat larges on the regular. My short tail pythons and boas usually get a medium once a month.

Because a snake is capable of taking a larger prey does not mean it needs to to thrive, grow and be healthy, overfeeding in captivity is an issue and increase of fatty live is too.

I have some 3500 and 4000 grams females and the biggest they get is a 150/175 grams rat weekly. They could take down a retire breeder rat which is usually around 300 grams however I am not interested in having a sluggish snake for days (considering the toll digestion takes)

In the long run smaller is better and personally I never feed something that leaves a bulge.

Strudel has been restless and cruising less than a week- sometimes even before 5 days- with the mediums but I'm also not sure if she would take a second rat in the same feeding session. She does not lack for appetite and drive though. Obesity is something I've kept on eye on for her specifically because I swear she'd eat like a boa if given the chance. So far so perfect.