Effects of meal size on postprandial responses in juvenile Burmese pythons (Python molurus)

The magnitude and duration of the digestive responses of pythons during the consumption of meals equivalent to 25% or 65% of their body mass were analyzed to determine the characteristics of snake postprandial response. Increasing meal size from 5%, 25% to 65% of the python's body mass increased the magnitude of postprandial response involving metabolic oxygen consumption rate, kidney hypertrophy and upregulation of nutrient uptakes. Furthermore, pythons exhibited rapid intestinal upregulation and downregulation involving increases in intestinal mass.