HELP....inkies, fuzzys, fluffies !!!!!!feeding advice needed

[miss_d_meanor]

ihope this is the right board, if not then iapologise.
i bought EVE on sunday the store told me she was feeding on 5 day old pinkies.
cool ok no problem or so i thought!
i purchased her in a reptile/homing centre 70 miles from my home,
i went tomy local reptile supply store 5 minutes walk from my house andi asked for 5 day old pinkies and the said
errr we have pinkies, fuzzy pinkies, fuzzys,fluffies,mice and baby rats etc
my question is this
when do you "upgrade" from a pinky to a fuzzy pinky and so on,
i am worried incase i either starve her incase the pinkie i give her is not big enough, on the other hand am worried that i give her feed thats to big and she chokes or something!! help i will be giving EVE her first feed on thursday i have bought a couple of pinkies and a couple of the smallest fuzzy pinkies i could find,i dont know what she weighs all i know is she is about 12inches long and the store where i bought her said she should be moved on to fuzzys in the next 4weeks or so
HELP!!!!!!!

[ssmith_1187]

The rule of thumb is…feed your snake a prey item that is no bigger that 1.5 times the widest part of your snake.

The "Munson Plan" provides a nice chart by which to gauge the size of your prey items.

The Munson Plan (http://cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50106)

Regards,
Steve

[Nanci]

You may worry less if you have a gram scale to weigh the snake and the mouse, and then use the Munson Plan. But in the days before that, it was simple enough to go by the rule of thumb 1-1.5 times bigger than the snake at its widest point.

So you can go to the mouse shop and ask to look at the different sizes, if you don't know what to call the size you need.

Your snake won't choke. It will either swallow the mouse or spit it back out or even refuse to try if it thinks the prey is too big. I learned the hard way that if you have a feeling it's too big, it may be too big. That doesn't mean the snake can't get it down. But if the prey is too big you run the risk of the snake not being able to digest it faster than the prey rots inside, so then the snake will regurgitate the rotting mouse. Which is bad. You want to avoid regurgitation at all costs. The stomach flora is lost and takes days to regenerate.

It never hurts to slit the prey to allow easier digestion. You cut 1-4 small slits on the prey's back. The snake likes this because it makes the prey smell more appealing. The digestive juices get into the prey without having to break through the skin first.

Nanci