California Kingsnake - Ready for Fuzzy?

[Seemoore57]

I have a California King that is 33 grams and about 21 inches long. I have been feeding him pinkies since I got him, starting at two and slowly working my way up to three. More recently, I noticed that when I fed him pinkies I couldn't see any bulge in him, which I believe I read somewhere means that the food is possibly too small. I went ahead and attempted to feed him four pinkies since he so easily ate three. He ate them very happily and even after four pinkies it seemed he was still hungry, and didnt even show a bulge. I want to move on to fuzzies since pinkies dont seem to be doing the trick.

I've always heard a good rule of thumb is to match the size of your snakes food to about its widest point. It seems that the fuzzy I thawing out is just a little bigger than his widest point, but I can not even fathom him being able to eat it. His head/neck is just so small! Is it safe to feed him this fuzzy? I would say that this fuzzy is just a little bit bigger than his widest point.

[EL Ziggy]

If he can eat 3-4 pinkys I'm sure he can handle a fuzzy. I don't think it'll be a problem at all.

[Andy_G]

Sounds more than ready for fuzzies. Do not let head/neck size throw you off.

[kudzu]

That tiny kingsnake head is deceiving. My Brooks king easily eats mice that I would have sworn wouldn't fit in his mouth. If you are unsure about the fuzzies, just pick the smallest ones initially. The only time my guy has had a problem switching to larger prey was from fuzzies to hoppers. He had to work a bit to get the first hopper down. Being my first snake, that concerned me a bit. For the next few feedings I picked the smallest hoppers, which made it easy. (There wasn't a big difference in size, just enough to ease my mind a bit.) He had no problem after the first hopper. Just switched from hoppers to adult mice. The first adult went down smooth despite it looking far too big for his head.

Just think. If we could eat things of comparable head to food size ratio, we'd be swallowing watermelons whole.

[craigafrechette]

He's definitely ready for fuzzies. It can be awfully surprising to new snake keepers how impressive snakes are with prey they can swallow. If it's only slightly bigger than the widest point on the snake you're fine, but you don't want to go bigger than that. Kings have a pretty awesome feeding response, so make sure you've got some long tongs once the snake gets bigger.
My adult Cal King is insane as soon as he smells his prey in the room.

[TRD]

Mine went directly from feedings of 4-5 pinkies to small hopper (about 7-8 gram food item). He'll chow fuzzies down without issues I would assume. Anyway, if it doesn't fit, he'll spit it right out.