Digestive efficiency in some Australian pythons

The digestive efficiencies of seven taxa of Australian pythons were examine d with respect to body temperature, meal size, and passage time. The hair o f rodents was not digested by the snakes. Digestive efficiencies were not i nfluenced by body temperature, and the values ranged from 89% to 98% if hai r was included and from 99.3% to 99.8% if hair was excluded from the analys es. The digestive efficiency of different food types can be made more compa rable by taking into account the known indigestible components. Passage tim e was significantly longer at 24 C than at 30 or 33 C. Passage time was not related to relative meal size.