Reptile & Amphibian Forums

On the 31st I'll be placing a rodent order for mice and some rats.
I'm trying to get a count on how many of what size I need.
Order is for 15 house snakes, 3 speckled kings and 6 florida kings (including the rescue job, the ones I got from BlueRosy and 2 I'm getting from John Cherry).
The speckleds are definitely going to be on pinkies for a bit; they're like 7-9 grams each right now. The house snakes will be *about that size* and the Florida kings are going on fuzzies as soon as I'm out of the pinkies I have right now.

How long about should I expect the speckleds to be on pinkies before they go to fuzzies? I was expecting maybe 3-4 months, then another 2-3 on fuzzies before hoppers?
And how long for the Florida guys to be on fuzzies? I'd guessing 3-4 months before they're ready to be on hoppers, but it's just a guess. I've only weighed these guys once (week after I got them) so I don't have a real clear picture of growth. They've all shed at least once, and 2 of the baby florida's have shed 2x.

I'm gonna tackle only the specks for you, as that is what I mostly work with from your list. I have 11 hatchlings from this year and all were quite small. I will tell you this, while their size may be small, they can and should be on fuzzies way before your mark. They don't get as big as the floridanas, but have the capability to grow remarkably fast in the first stage. All my hatchlings are on fuzzies now and have been for two months, one clutch hatched in July and the other in August. I really don't push them after the first several feedings, but I try to get them off of pinkies as quick as they can, and they can tackle a fuzzy after about 6 or 7 pinkies, all fed in about 3 weeks time. This is what I do, some don't, but they should get off the pinkies as quick as you let them. I know they are tiny and it doesn't seem right, but I have never had a speck regurge, they just retire to that place they have and digest, just be sure you have a warm enough place for them to do so and a cool enough place when they don't need to be warm. Hope this helps. I feed live so I don't know how many frozen rodents you need to order, but trying to feed every 4 days or so is working well for me.

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Todd Hughes

thanks I'm just hoping to not have to order mice again for another 4-6 months, so trying to plan that out is being a PITA. I don't wanna wind up with 200 extra hoppers and not enough pinks..and get stuck paying for shipping just for those

I have a large collection of brooksi and have babies that just hatched 3 weeks ago. Thier first meal, after their first shed, was two large pinkies each. They each ate a good-sized fuzzy for both their second and third meals, and they are now taking hoppers EASILY. Brooks Kings will eat larger food items than you might expect. Within a month ALL of my hatchlings are on hoppers, and some are even taking two at a time. I feed them every 2-3 days and most of them will eat each time I offer food. If your snake can not eat an item as big as you try and feed them, they will simply try and eat it and then give up. When this happens to me, which it happens very rarely, I wait two days and offer two smaller items. Be sure to feed them as much as they can eat as food once a week will not allow them to reach their potential and for Brooksi, it will be literally starving them. I move mine to the next food size ASAP so that they can get the calcium, protein, and fats from a more mature mouse as pinks are mostly water. GOOD LUCK! BROOKSI RULE!!!

heh yeah I don't have any fuzzies or hoppers atm (hence the order) but did get a couple of hundred pinkies pretty cheap and easy...they're eating 3 or 4 at a go 2-3x/week. Gonna just switch 'em over to 2 fuzzies per as soon as I get that order in.

eating machine describes 'em pretty well. I kinda wonder what they'll be at when I weigh 'em next month. I don't know about putting them on hoppers just yet (on the 19th they were from 17-23 grams), but they can certainly take fuzzies w/out a problem.

Pinkies are not ice cubes and a nutrition-less food, the proteins in a pinky are quite evident. maybe lacking in other nutrient such as teeth and bones, gut load(except mouse milk),hair? what im saying is the protein in a pink may be much more than a graduate. Peace jmfo, Chris

Okay... Florida kings... you'll need full-sized rats in about two weeks... hehehe.

I would imagine they'll be off fuzzies within a good month or so and will be clamoring for hoppers.
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Holly

1.0 Florida Kingsnake (Eddie Gein)
0.1 Lavender California Kingsnake (Belle Gunness)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Charley Manson)
1.0 Fire Skink (Peter Dinsdale)
1.0 Vietnamese Golden Gecko (George Chapman)
0.0.1 Blue Day Gecko (Joe Ball)
1.0 Orange Marmalade Cat (Oliver)
1.0 Black Cat (Shadowfax)
1.0 Tennessee Walking Horse (Durango)

2.0 Toddlers (Justice & Trevor)

Order more then you need, order all sizes. You should feed snakes by how they react to food, not on some set schedule.

If you want your snakes to progress you support them, not control them with a set feeding schedule. So have extra food in stock. Generally 50% more then you need.

Don't worry, as long as you have snakes, they will eat it all.

Or you can get what we old timers call a junk snake. Thats one that will eat everything, even old frozen or regurg, anything the others did not eat. Like a big or gopher or ratsnake, these junk snakes most often are are favorite and healhiest snake. hahahahahahahahahahaha So they are actually not junk, they just eat the junk. Cheers

My boa's a "junk snake" for rats, rabbits or g-pigs. He eats anything and everything from rat crawlers to 5 lb. rabbits. I like him
I think I'll just order 500 or so of each size and if I have to reorder sooner than I want oh well. Only problem is balancing freezer space.