Food issues with a king

Lefitte · 12-10-14, 02:52 AM

So, I've had Eir since early September and I had her on a steady diet of two pinkies every 5-7 days. A couple months ago I moved up to large pinkies/almost fuzzies and she was loving those but my pet store hasn't had them and is now in the process of moving so I'm stuck with what Petsmart has. A few feedings ago I tried to feed her a fuzzy from Arctic Mice and it took some coaxing for her to take it. When she finally did... she regurgitated it up some time after she got it down. Since my temps were normal and it was the biggest prey I'd ever fed her, I figured it was simply too big for her to take. I gave her system a rest before trying to feed her again and went with three extra small pinkies [all my petstore had]. Today, I had some extra defrosted pinkies and chose to feed her however much she seemed interested in. She took 5 and I stopped there [they were small again]. I would really like to move her up in size but I'm not sure what the problem is. She seems intimidated by fuzzies.

What's the best thing to do here? Should I just bump up how many pinkies I feed and how often until she grows a bit more? I know pinkies don't provide much nutrition and very little calcium.

I'll be ordering a scale soon but until then, here are some pictures. Not the best, I don't usually have people to snap pictures for me while I hold her and it's difficult to watch for cats, make sure she doesn't fall, and photograph.

I was told she was 1-2 months when I got her.

First pic is the day I brought her home the first week of September. Second is the first week of October. The last two are from mid-November.

**Minkness** · 12-10-14, 03:10 AM

I have no suggestions on feeding sadly as I am not yet experienced to give you advice, however, that is one lovely king!

Lefitte · 12-10-14, 03:28 AM

Thank you very much! She's my first ever snake and I did plenty of research and talked to countless friends and others online before and since I bought her, but I'm a seriously overly paranoid mama. I absolutely love my baby. My parents aren't all that fond of snakes and my niece and sister don't really consider them pets, but I'm totally enjoying her. I call her my pixellated girl. I got her from LLL Reptile.

CosmicOwl · 12-10-14, 03:39 AM

With colubrids, it's generally recommended to feed a prey item that is 1 to 1 and 1/2 times the width of the snake at it's thickest.

Lefitte · 12-10-14, 03:57 AM

Yeah, but it can be hard to judge sometimes, especially since the mice seem to plump up a little in the water. The larger pinkies I fed her a couple times were perfect. It only took one to feed her and left a bit of a lump. It was easily twice the size of the pinkies I've been able to find.

I know another good judge is to go by weight which is one reason I plan on ordering one soon. I have noticed some growth on her recently, mostly in her girth, so I'm hoping it won't be much longer. I'm just a litter unsure what the best course of action is currently. Until my LPS reopens, I have to get all my mice from Petsmart and I don't have much choice in sizes there.

Obsidian_Dragon · 12-11-14, 11:05 AM

I have been known to open the Arctic Mice boxes and sort of peek at what's in there. Sometimes you get a whole box of some extreme size of pinkie/fuzzy whatever, and it's obnoxious (or useful, depending!). I once got a box of barely above pinkie size fuzzies--not good for me at the time, but that might be what you need.

I'd try to find small fuzzies. Try being the key word--I know how obnoxious it is.

Lefitte · 12-11-14, 03:20 PM

Haha I've taken to opening the boxes to look too or feel the singles to try to find one that seems the right size. That's the best idea but if I have to buy pinkies, how many do you think would be a good idea? Since there are multiple, I'm not entirely sure how to judge amount. I need to ask a friend something before I order the scale and that'll take a while to get here.