There is no easy answer for this.

I can't remember the exact proportions, but many people will tell you to feed prey items that are something like "half again as big (in girth) as the snake at its widest point."

I hate that rule, because it doesn't take the snake's body condition well enough into account - just as going by weight in grams alone doesn't give a clear picture of body condition. I have had a snake actually split the tissues at the hinge of the jaws on both sides of her head before because we used to feed by this proportion method.

What really matters is the snake - it's own weird preferences, and the proportions of its head. Some snakes just prefer small meals that they don't have to work too hard to swallow. My largest female seems to lean this way, so I feed her about 3 undersized weaned rats once a week.

As far as the largest size prey to feed an individual, I would not feed a snake anything that is larger than 1.5 times the width of its head (widest point at the hinge of the jaws). They can obviously handle wider, but you never know exactly how much wider until you find something that is too wide, and results in injury.

The snake that I had before that had split the sides of her mouth kept resplitting her mouth any time she was fed anything larger than her own head, which caused her to have to stretch that unwilling scar tissue. It was pretty awful. She was a very large, robust albino rat snake hybrid (black X yellow in some arrangement), but could only eat adult mice or similarly sized rats. Other than that, she was quite healthy.

Best of luck!
~Rebecca
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0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)
1.2 Ball Pythons

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