Yeah all of my carpet pythons, and boas for that matter, are out hunting every single night regardless of how recently they've fed. As for prey size increase, I'd only step up about one size at a time. Came from Nick eating adult mice/rat pups? I'd look into rat pups/maybe a weaned rat. Based on the pics you posted of that animal in your hands it's got quite some time before it's ready for small rats in my opinion. Not trying to knock on Gio's suggestion of small rats, I just think they might be close to half of what the snake's weight.
Nick definitely wasn't weighing anything that snake was eating at his facility, but if you look at Perfect Prey's size ranges on their website a small rat can weigh close to 3x what an adult mouse/rat pup does. If you have a place local to you to buy frozen feeders they should be able to let you look and judge size before buying. Hope this is helpful.
NOOOO I agree,
I should have specified FUZZY.
I, unfortunately consider anything under a medium rat a "small" rat but there are smaller rats than "small" rats LOL!