Multiple small prey items v's one large item

[Jim Smith]

When I first got back into keeping snakes, the breeder I bought my first snake from suggested that feeding a snake multiple smaller prey items rather than one large prey item will allow the snake to grow a bit faster. For example feeding two hoppers instead of one full sized mouse. His logic was that it took the snake less energy to breakdown and digest two smaller prey items than it took to do the same to one large item. I don't think he had any empirical data to support this theory, but his experience suggested that it was true. I have followed this suggestion a number of times and while my snakes tend to grow rather quickly, I don't have any way to compare their growth to snakes fed a diet of single larger prey items per meal. I thought I'd post the question here to see if anyone else has heard this and/or has any thoughts on the validity of this assumption.

Thanks and I look forward to the input on this question.