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feeding tips and help...

Maize411

Maize411

Hooked for life!!
Well I just fed Maize her daily pinkie...now here are a few questions I hope you guys can answer for me...

1. whenever I try to get the pinkie out of the baggie it ALWAYS starts to literally crush from me touching it..it literally liquifies into...juice...Maize almost tried to eat the paper towl thinking it was the pinkie..but then she found the mouse itself and ate that...is this normal for the pinkie to be so tender or am I doing something wrong??

2. It looked like to me that after she finished she could fit another one but I just put her back in her tank and intend on checking tomorrow night to see if the bump is still there..if it isn't...should I give her another pinkie or start moving her up to fuzzies??? It seems so early to do that...I just got her 2 weeks ago..but I'm unsure here..well I hope you guys can help...after she ate the pinkie the bump in her tummy seemed to start shrinking already..but we'll see tomorrow...any input would be helpful..thanks... :shrugs:
 
Sounds like you might be thawing the pinkie in water that's too hot? How exactly do you thaw them?

As for the size of food, I give two for a while - or, since I breed my own mice, pick out a slightly larger pink gradually - instead of leaping straight to a small fuzzie, but that's personal preference on my part.
 
Did you really mean daily?( I usually feed pinks on a 5 day schedule, some people feed on 6 or 7 day schedules). I usually try bigger pinks before bumping to fuzzies, but you could try 2 pinks for a few feeds when 1 pink isn't enough.
 
I hope this helps...

Maize411 said:
Well I just fed Maize her daily pinkie
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I'm sure you meant weekly.

Maize411 said:
whenever I try to get the pinkie out of the baggie it ALWAYS starts to literally crush from me touching it..it literally liquifies into...juice
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I think you may be thawing or warming it too long

tyflier said:
About 10 minutes in hot tap water should do the trick for a pinky.
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Maize411 said:
Maize almost tried to eat the paper towel thinking it was the pinkie..but then she found the mouse itself and ate that
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I would not feed a snake on paper toweling. It could stick to the feeder and cause the snake to ingest it. If paper toweling is your only option: stay with snake while it eats to make sure it doesn't swallow any. (Click on the purple links.)

Maize411 said:
It looked like to me that after she finished she could fit another one ...should I give her another pinkie or start moving her up to fuzzies??? It seems so early to do that...I just got her 2 weeks ago..
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If you bought your snake from a pet store (where they habitually underfeed snakes to keep them small since they sell better), I don't think it's too early to go up a size. There isn't a "schedule" as to when you move up a size on feeders. You have to judge it according to the size of the snake. Some snakes grow quicker than others. Try to feed your snake a meal that is 1.5X it's widest girth.
Good Luck!:cheers:
 
Okay no more paper towl for one...heh...and yes I did mean weekly..I'm going to check tonight to see if she still has a bump to digest..if not I'm going to give her another pinkie..this time I won't warm it so long...I'm really trying my best here...since I am a new snake owner..I feel like I"m doing everything wrong and I really just want the best for her :cry:
 
You could buy a digital meat thermometer- they cost about $9 at the grocery store. Then you can thaw and heat the pink to exactly 101F! I'd start out with warm water and gradually increase the temp. I'd be more likely to blame freezing/thawing for making it soft- rather than heating it too much.

If she's eating pinks, you should probably be feeding her every five days.

Another handy snake-raising tool is a gram scale. Then you not only know how much weight your snake is gaining, but you can also weigh the pinks to help decide what size to use.

Pink- 2-3 grams- every 4-5 days, up to 15 gram snake
Double pinks- 3 grams x 2- every 4-5 days- 16-23 gram snake
Small fuzzy- 5-7 grams- every 5-6 days, 24-30 gram snake
Fuzzy- 7-9 grams- 5-6 days, 30-50 gram snake

Nanci
 
It's probably not a good idea to feed another pinky only 1 day after feeding one already. Wait at least 4 days before attempting feeding again or you might trigger a regurge.
 
Flagg said:
It's probably not a good idea to feed another pinky only 1 day after feeding one already. Wait at least 4 days before attempting feeding again or you might trigger a regurge.
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I'm glad someone mentioned that. The BEST scenario for that is incomplete digestion for at least one of the pinks...you don't want that. Best to wait until the next feeding and give the snake one pinky followed closely by the second, to make sure they both start digesting at the same time, and your snake can achieve complete digestion of both food items.
 
tyflier said:
I'm glad someone mentioned that. The BEST scenario for that is incomplete digestion for at least one of the pinks...you don't want that. Best to wait until the next feeding and give the snake one pinky followed closely by the second, to make sure they both start digesting at the same time, and your snake can achieve complete digestion of both food items.
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Thanks for that titbit tyflier! Like the OP, I've only had my snake a couple of weeks. It makes you feel like an incompetent new parent. My girlie will be having her first double dose of pinkies tomorrow and I didn't want to get it wrong.

To all the knowledgable people on the various threads - Thank you! :)

Kelly
 
Thank you for the info everyone...I'll be sure to pick up a scale as soon as I can so I can keep tabs on the weight gain of my snake and how much she eats..and I'm going to wait until Friday to feed her her next meal which might be two pinkies...we'll see what happens...

question....If I bring the pinkie out of the freezer early in the morning to thaw out and then wait until around 10 hours later to then just put it into the feeding tank without heating it in water?? would this work or do I need to put it in water??? thanks again everyone for the input.. :wavey:
 
In my admittedly limited experience, I have found my snakes to be more responsive when the pinky/fuzzy is fresh from hot water. I think this may be due to the "heat signature" the prey item gives off naturally. If you feed an amdiently thawed pinky, it won't have a heat signature, like live prey would. If you're feeding f/t pinkies at around 100*F, they present a heat signature very similar to live or freshly killed prey.

The only comparison I can make is when I thaw multiple food items for multiple snakes. I was a bit slow one time, getting the pinky to my corn, and it had cooled off by the time I got it to her, and she wouldn't look at it. But a quick dunk in a glass of hot tap water, and she wolfed down the same pinky, but this time it was hot.
 
so if I leave it out to thaw and then put it in a cup of hot water for a few seconds it should give off a heat reading to the snake like live prey would? or would this not work? :shrugs:
 
Now you're getting the idea!

That would be okay. I would put (keep?) it in a plastic baggie, so it's not so wet. (I can't see myself drying it off with tissue or blow-dryer.)
 
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