Weight

[Gloryhound]

Approximately what weight should his prey item be? Like, 1/4 of his own weight? Up until now I've just been judging on size, but now that I have a scale I could make sure his prey is the right size for him.

I don't gauge prey on weight as much as thickness of the snake. The prey should be no thicker around the the thickest part of the snake. I generally go slightly smaller just to be on the conservative side of things.

As far as weight goes, it can vary from snake to snake dramatically. Also depends on if the previous keeper was maintenance feeding, regular feeding, or power feeding the snake. Maintenance feeding is basically feeding the minimum for health and survival a lot of breeders will do this with the snakes they are selling for several reasons, also some keepers will do it as it is cheaper and makes feeding time a lot easier. Regular is what most people do for pets or breeders and it is the proper size prey every 7 to 10 days. Power feeding is unhealthy, but some breeders will do it particularly to their females to help them bulk up quick. It basically means feeding as much as the snake will eat as often as possible. Snakes were not meant to eat like that regularly and their system doesn't deal with it very well.