Quote Originally Posted by John1982 View Post
Pretty much everything is going to affect how much of a prey item is utilized making it nearly impossible to come up with a solid, long term guideline based on weight % alone.
I did have the chance to read an article earlier today about almost this exact topic. I don't recall the specifics off the top of my head, but it was regarding digestion rate of various Python species (5 total), and balls were one of them. All 5 species were fed meals equivalent to 25% of their mass and monitored for a period of time. Of the 5 species, the balls were 2nd to last or last in terms of speed of digestion. This likely indicates that they are naturally able to "stretch" meals out for longer periods of time than the other species (or, that they don't require as fast of a metabolism as the other species for one reason or another).

Now, what this means in terms of coming up with some kind of generic feeding recommemdation, I don't know for sure. It's just more evidence that they don't need as much food as some may think. Personally, I took it as another tool in my toolbox to think about during periods of fasting.

I do like the idea of some sort of pictorial showing healthy ball pythons at various stages of their lives. I mean, really, who's going to say no to more pictures of snakes!