Pinkies to Fuzzies

[pdomensis]

My yearling Cali king eats pinkies just fine, but refuses to eat anything with hair on it. He's plenty big to eat fuzzies in my opinion, but maybe I'm basing that on my experience with my carpet python. Has anyone else had a similar experience, or any suggestions? Thanks!!

[EL Ziggy]

That's weird pdomensis. I have no logical explanation for why he's not moving up in prey size. As a yearling he should be eating medium if not large mice. How large is this king and how many pinks do you give him per feeding? If he's eating mice, maybe you could try rat pinks. At least they're a little larger.

[pdomensis]

I haven't measured or weighed him but he's probably 14 to 18 inches long. He'll take 3 to 4 pinkies at a time. Fuzzies are just a bit bigger than his head. He'll give a defensive strike and then hide from it. Trying a rat pink is a good idea. I'll give that a go.

[sharthun]

My adult albino prairie king only wants mouse fuzzies now. He was on xl mice, then rat pups to rat weanlings. I don't know if they fear the larger prey or their fur or eyes or prey color. He's definitely finicky.

[EL Ziggy]

I haven't measured or weighed him but he's probably 14 to 18 inches long. He'll take 3 to 4 pinkies at a time. Fuzzies are just a bit bigger than his head. He'll give a defensive strike and then hide from it. Trying a rat pink is a good idea. I'll give that a go.
You could also try putting him in a covered container with the fuzzy overnight. If he's left alone in the dark with a reasonably sized fuzzy he might go for it. Can you post a picture of him?

[FWK]

Shave 'em. I don't like them fuzzy either. Mice I mean. What? In all seriousness the only thing I can think of is an experience I had recently with my BPs, I have a few that are on medium rats and hitting them hard. The rats come in packs of ten, one day I open a new pack and follow my standard routine. I thaw them in warm tap water, pre-sent the snakes tubs and offer just after dark. But on this occasion the snakes behaved very strangely. Normally most of them are in an ambush pose when I open the tubs, a couple will usually come part way out of the tub looking for the rat. This time every one of them was defensive, I even got some hissing and defensive strikes. Only my best eater took one and he took some convincing. Utterly bewildered I threw the rest of the rats out and tried to figure out what I had done wrong. The next week was the same story, so I thew the rats out again and opened a new package. I warmed up one rat from the new package and offered it to my next best eater. She hit it instantly. So I warmed up a few more and sure enough everybody ate normally. I don't know what was wrong with those rats but they must have smelled funny or something. What I am trying to say is it is possible you have some funny smelling mice, maybe try one from a new package. Or you may just a have a King with a fetish lol.

[Primal Rage]

My yearling Cali king eats pinkies just fine, but refuses to eat anything with hair on it. He's plenty big to eat fuzzies in my opinion, but maybe I'm basing that on my experience with my carpet python. Has anyone else had a similar experience, or any suggestions? Thanks!!

I had a male extreme hypo hondo that at 2 years old would only eat 5-6 fuzzies at a time. I tried rat pinks, small mice, and braining(eww). He eventually started taking small mice after another year or so. My buddy in ohio has a sub adult hondo doing the same thing right now! You are not alone man! As far as explanations go I am stumped. I think in time your Cal king will come around.

[pdomensis]

Thanks for all the input. I'm guessing it's just a size thing. It's more of an annoyance than anything but so long as he keeps eating and stays healthy I can deal with it. It's definitely not what I expected after hearing so many stories of kings gobbling up anything that moves.