Well the size of the food plays into the fat as well. Babies and jumbos aka usually retired breeders are fatty. The best foods for our snakes are medium to large rodents as far as rodents go. And they do get fed a lot but I wouldn't say really too much. The problem is most of our snakes don't get out much so you got a 6-8ft snake in a 4ft cage. How much exercise do you think they can really get. In the wild they have to actually hunt for food, find comfortable places to "hang out", possibly crawl at top speed away from a predator, swim across a river, you get the idea. I usually drag Rosey out every couple days and let her crawl around the couch or the chairs to give her exercise. She actually loves to come out and crawl around. Dottie usually gets outs every couple days as well but she isn't as much of an explorer as Rosey and Vicky who is a BCI too like Rosey has pretty much the same personality, she loves to explore everything but she is only about 2ft long. So my 2 cents is I try and balance outside time with food intake. But back on subject, nothing I can really say new that others haven't stated already. Guess chalk it up as a learning experience and thank god it wasn't a $400 snake eating another $400 snake.