Quote Originally Posted by Salodin View Post
The problem with both your statement and the experiment is that it is all relative; there is no actual base line for what is "larger". I haven't seen the actual data (I wish the op linked me to something lol), but it's easy to make a statement like yours with no prior knowledge of the species at all because well...for a snake killing and eatting 25% of your body weight might not be too difficult, it's keeping it down will be difficult (which to your credit is what you are saying).

However, if say the "normal" size prey is 10% bw, and the "larger prey item" is say 15%, that is not a world of difference even though it is technically a 50% increase in weight consumed (compared to a 250% increase). I'm just throwing out numbers, but I think I get the point across.

So again, with out real specifics and data, it's hard to say either way; this goes double when to my knowledge the health risks associated with power feeding a snake are not known at this time. This whole thing should be taken with a grain of salt, but the results do open up a gateway so to say for future experiments to take place.
You stole the thoughts from my head. I am interested in the actual numbers. I have found that with my 2 snakes (ball python and diamond x jungle carpet) about 50% of what the snakes eats gets retained as body weight while they are growing. My carpet python who is new to me weighed in at 105 grams when I got her and was 201 before her last feeding. She had eaten 181 grams total in that time. That's retaining 53% of each feeding as body weight. Personally with all I have read I would not feed more than every 4 days and no more than 20% of their body weight while they are young and growing fast. I personally shoot for every 5 days and try to feed between 10% and 20%. Nothing in this study really surprised me but I am holding out to see how the total weekly prey weight compared between the snakes fed multiple smaller meals and the the ones fed normal meals.