There is nothing at all wrong with your job,I went from starting off maintenancing cages in a family friend's pet store to eventually managing the place then moving onto a more advanced store that dealt with reptiles and feeders only,then from there I started maintaining a private collection of venomous snakes for a breeding facility,I emphasize that there is nothing wrong with your job,I've been where you're at now,all along I built my own collection and experience as well as research with reptiles,same as what it sounds you're doing now,now I manage my own private collection and work outside of my hobby to increase my enjoyment of herp keeping and avoid burnout (when you work with something you enjoy,that's great but sometimes it can lose it's glamour and become,well,work!.
As far as overfeeding,impactions can and do occur but they're generally rare,I have heard of such things as Guinea Pigs causing impactions supposedly because of skull mass,ducks causing impactions because of thier thick beaks,etc..I have't really witnessed or been able to find any solid research that these happen consistently,not that they can't but when and if they do,it seems few and far between.
The thing I see often with overfeeding is bloating and regurgitation,the latter usually occurring afer handling either just fed or heavily fed snake and the former when feeding an overly large prey animal.
While either can probably cause problems,they're usually capable of digesting very large,whole prey items though i don't believe in pushing as many people do with thier Burmese Pythons in order to attain large sizes quickly,this is called power feeding and should be discouraged,it contributes to obesity as well as size discrepancy between the head and body,the size can be huge like an adult but an immature animal will have the head size of a juvenile!
Anyways,I digress,as far as bloating,that seems to pose the most risk to me though i don't know if it's really "extremely dangerous" some snakes,when fed too many or too large a prey animal at a time will bloat,this is when the snake can't digest the carcass quick enough and it starts to break down and decompose naturally in the stomach,when bodies rot,they build up gas and bloat,a large lump can attain double it's mass,of course this is very uncomfortable for the snake and possibly dangerous as it increases the risk of regurgiation and maybe may make the snake ill if to an extreme.
All that gas must pass too!
Insufficient temperatures and too large a meal all result in this kind of bloating,the one bad case i saw that was attibutable to this was a Reticulated Python,the owner fed her three very large retired breeding rabbits,the snake was about eleven feet,maybe twelve,she bloated up the second day to a startling and alarming mass so that the scales were distended and she was lying on her side,breathing heavily,the next day she regurgitated and died.
I don't know for sure if that was the exact cause of deathI'm not a Vet,she could have had some other ailment leading to the regurgitation and death but my guess is,and I think a good case could be made for the overfeeding and bloating being the cause of death.
Anyways,overfeeding is just as bad as underfeeding,contributing to obesity and premature death,I still think such cases of impaction and the case mentioned above are rare.
What I meant to point out to you is for you to research a bit the healthy quantity of feedings and prey size for the animals in question,keep in mind that they are quite capable of digesting rather large meals and thier metabolic rate,of course,their capabilities will all differ according to the type of snake,age,etc..
Carry on with your research and gaining experience,please look into the books I mentioned in my earlier posts and read and get ahold of everything you can,also be skeptical of all advice you receive over the internet,you don't know me and my credentials,I don't know you and everyone else,they can talk a good game sometimes and sound convincing but always doublecheck before acting on anything and research written materials from the experienced breeders,herpetoculturists and herpetologists,there are alot of people out there with alot of good experience and knowledge that you can learn alot from so pay attention but keep in mind that there are alot of egotistical types out there who think they have it all right who can give faulty and sometimes harmful advice!
StormyHall
