Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two baby brooksi who have each had approx 28-30 meals. I feed them a pinky a week. Supplies are low need to get some more pinkies. I'm gonna order from Big Cheese. They offer a small (1-2g) and large pinkies (2-3g). I need to know if by this time I should increase the sizes of their meal. This is my first experience raising snakes from neonates, so I have no idea how big those larger pinkies are and if they'll be too big for my snakes. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

It's hard to say without seeing the snake but, after 30 meals i think you can bump up to larger pinks...

What i would do is feed the snake 2 of the smaller pinkies.. if it can handle that he is prob. ready for bigger pinks.

~ Mike

A good rule of thumb is that the food item can be at most slightly wider then the thickest part of the snake. If your snakes are growing normally I would say that they would be more then ready for large pinks, if not a few.

I always like to get neonates off of pinks ASAP because fuzzies are much more nutritious.

Cheers

Since I am a regular Big Cheese customer, I would suggest getting their large pinks. Since Brooksi are larger babies than some other kings, I think they would do fine with the large pinks. Then, I would graduate them to small fuzzies.

Since you are ordering from them and if you have your order shipped, buy one package of the large pinks and then one package of the fuzzies. That way, when you get them in, compare and see which size really is the most suitable. I say this cause if your brooks have had that many meals as you mentioned, they may be big enough for small fuzzies.

Either way, I think that they should at least be on large pinks. Since they vacuum seal, a package of fuzzies will last a long time in the freezer.

Take care!
-----
Genesis 1:1

One pinky per week for 28 weeks makes your little Brooks at least seven months old. It is pretty amazing the size food item they can actually eat with no problem. I hope yours are very healthy, but they might even be a little on the skinny side on that feeding schedule. I would at least start feeding them three pinks per meal and quickly move them up to fuzzies and hoppers. I don’t buy bags of frozen mice so I don’t know how many you have to order, but if you get 25 fuzzies you could use them up in one month between the two snakes, I would think. You might then have to move up to the next size with your next order. I agree with getting them up to small mice asap. I think you’ll see the little buggars will eat anything you offer and grow pretty fast.

This little one is eating two pinks per meal, they are live and he’s got a great feeding response.

I think this is the same snake a few days ago, probably the same age as yours, you can see he’s eating a pretty big “hopper”.

These are not “power feeding” tips or anything, I think these snakes are quite capable of eating a lot and growing like weeds. I think that is how they do it in nature when an abundance of food is present- they gorge.
Good luck with them!

Here's my 06 Brooksi from Tom Stevens. Approx 7-8 months old. My rodents come from Big Cheese, and this male is eating one, and sometimes even two fuzzys a week. Hope that helps. Steve

.