I am more alarmed by the absolutes that seem to fly around here and other places about feeding prey size and weight alone.
The deliberate starvation that big chain stores does is animal cruelty and should be called out as such. I don't know a single reputable and long term breeder that would ever put a sub adult snake on a substandard feeding routine so any breeder that does that is either woefully ignorant about their collection or downright despicable and should not keep or sell snakes. I think there needs to be more emphasis on "don't buy from a big chain store ever" and more steering people away from inexperienced breeders that have no business selling snakes than criticizing new owners for poor decision making skills.
Back on my disagreement about feeding regiments. Each snake is different but each snake should be fed the minimum to keep them healthy once an adult and the maximum to keep them growing yet not overweight as a juvenile. No more no less. I no longer feed any of my snakes on a set schedule except my GTP due to it being under medical care right now and needing the schedule for treatment.
My Rosy boa is growing like mad now that I upscaled food but he is also robust enough that he does not need a weekly set amount like clockwork to keep him growing. My BP is off food for a month an a half now because he wants to be and because I fed him well enough during the normal season he would not suffer from a fast.
I think we all need to stop this asinine 10-15% body weight food size shenanigans and become more advanced and instead promote the advocacy of weighing a growing snake on a regular basis and ensure they put on a set amount of grams based on their species and age. One snake may grow just enough on 15% but another of the same species might get fat and unhealthy doing the same. Demanding prey size also confuses new owners because they then scramble for that prey size quickly learning no two mice/rats are the same. Insisting on snake weight measuring allows for more flexible prey options (multiple feedings, small then large alternating, different feeding schedules, etc).
So my view is tell new owners to weight their snake after every 2-3 feedings and as a young snake grows, target something along the lines of say 10% body mass growth per weigh in period instead of prey size advice. We should also promote the weaning quickly off of pinky mice or rats as neither are nutritionally complete for minerals or protein and are far too high in fat. They are good for newborn smaller species like corn snakes to get them up to a larger prey asap but should be advocated against for ball pythons and larger species as they are just garbage bags of fat and gelatinous ooze.
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