Switching mouse size?

milk man · 03-24-13, 07:40 PM

A week and a half ago I picked up a 2 year old albino Honduran milk snake which has been feeding on f/t hoppers. He is 110g and I think it is time to go up in size, but all I can find is 18g and up mice. Is this to large of a leap in size or am I okay to feed him those? His first meal in my care was a hopper if that helps any.

Bloutitt · 03-24-13, 08:19 PM

Rule of thumb is 1.5 times the size of the largest part on the snakes body

hope that helps.

Terranaut · 03-24-13, 08:36 PM

Just try one and see. The snake will either it eat or not. No harm will come if it's a bit big.

milk man · 03-25-13, 03:06 PM

Thanks guys. I was planning on just trying it, but was concerned about regurgitation.

Chu'Wuti · 03-25-13, 05:20 PM

Two years old and only 110 gm? Ack.

I have a three-year old Honduran female; I just weighed her at 461 gm.

She eats two adult mice at about 20-26 grams each per week. I don't try jumbo mice with her, as they would be too big, but she happily takes the two skinnier ones. If I give her more--which she would happily take--she starts getting obese, so I try to stay somewhere between 45-55 grams total each week with her.

I have 40 and 47-gram juvies that eat 3 hoppers per meal for a total of 18 gms (I have too many hoppers to not finish feeding them!), so you should definitely be able to go up to weanlings, at least. Just keep the diameter of the meal about 1.25-1.5 max the diameter of your snake.

Good luck!

NCHornet · 03-25-13, 04:36 PM

Without seeing a pic it is hard to say for sure. I would say it should be able to handle it.

milk man · 03-25-13, 06:33 PM

Yeah it seems a bit odd to me that he is 2y/o and only 110g. I wanted to bulk him up a little. I hope he will calm down when he puts on some weight. He's a bit skittish right now.

Here is a pic to help.
IMG_0004.jpg

milk man · 03-27-13, 07:22 PM

Just an update. I fed him the 18g mouse and he did just fine. Thanks for all the help, guys.