Question about weights of pinkies

[Wylie]

I am following the Munson plan and I have a question. It lists the weights of the feeder mice to help with knowing what size of mouse to feed your snake... what I'm wondering is, if I wanted to know the weight of the pinkies I'm feeding my snake, would I weigh them frozen or thawed? I know they are going to weigh more thawed since they would be holding more water (since I thaw them in water). I'd like to know so that I can determine how many one day old pinkies I should be feeding my snake (cause he clearly needs bigger mice but I need to use up the one day old pinkies first). Thanks!

On a related note, does anyone know how the companies who sell the mice weigh them? I'm curious cause when I weighed my one day old pinkies, frozen, one pinkie wouldn't even register at 1 gram.

 

[Morph Collector]

I never really asked myself those questions, how they were weighed. But I assume they are not weights of water logged, or frozen pinkys, and somehow weighed before they were put in cryo. I hope someone has a better answer for you. If nothing else comes up you can "double-up" on the pinkies depending on the size of your snake, just in case...

 

[batwrangler]

I am following the Munson plan and I have a question. It lists the weights of the feeder mice to help with knowing what size of mouse to feed your snake... what I'm wondering is, if I wanted to know the weight of the pinkies I'm feeding my snake, would I weigh them frozen or thawed? I know they are going to weigh more thawed since they would be holding more water (since I thaw them in water). I'd like to know so that I can determine how many one day old pinkies I should be feeding my snake (cause he clearly needs bigger mice but I need to use up the one day old pinkies first). Thanks!

On a related note, does anyone know how the companies who sell the mice weigh them? I'm curious cause when I weighed my one day old pinkies, frozen, one pinkie wouldn't even register at 1 gram.

I weigh them frozen. I often give two smaller prey items before moving up to the next size, but wouldn't give more than three at one feeding.

When you can't get individual pinkies to register, you can either buy a more precise scale, or put several pinkies on the scale until you get a weight reading and then divide the weight by the number of pinkies being weighed.

 

[Mysfitz]

i weigh rat pinks before and after freezing and it's pretty much the same.
even if thawed as pinkies the won't hold much water(no fur) so should weigh almost the same as frozen/live.

they don't gain weight being frozen or thawed(not enough to worry about anyway) unless they are drenched in water(fur) when placed on the scale.

 

[Wylie]

I weigh them frozen. I often give two smaller prey items before moving up to the next size, but wouldn't give more than three at one feeding.

Why not?

When you can't get individual pinkies to register, you can either buy a more precise scale, or put several pinkies on the scale until you get a weight reading and then divide the weight by the number of pinkies being weighed.

Yeah, that's exactly what I did. Four on the scale came up to 6 grams. According to the Munson plan a snake weighing at least 16g can have 6 grams worth of food. So if I don't give my snake 4 pinkies then he is getting less than he should be, hence the above question. And I've still got a lot of 1 day old pinkies left, I can't see under feeding him until they're gone? :shrugs:

Thanks for the help.

What is everyone else's opinion on this?

i weigh rat pinks before and after freezing and it's pretty much the same.
even if thawed as pinkies the won't hold much water(no fur) so should weigh almost the same as frozen/live.

they don't gain weight being frozen or thawed(not enough to worry about anyway) unless they are drenched in water(fur) when placed on the scale.

Thanks, that was helpful.

 

[batwrangler]

Why not?



Yeah, that's exactly what I did. Four on the scale came up to 6 grams. According to the Munson plan a snake weighing at least 16g can have 6 grams worth of food. So if I don't give my snake 4 pinkies then he is getting less than he should be, hence the above question. And I've still got a lot of 1 day old pinkies left, I can't see under feeding him until they're gone? :shrugs:

I wouldn't feed more than three, especially to a small snake, because their stomachs are only so big and I don't want to risk a regurge.

If you don't have anyone else to feed the pinks to, try pairing a smaller pink with a bigger one for each feeding until they are gone: you won't be underfeeding and you won't be giving your snake more prey items than its stomach can comfortably hold.

Or you could just get another snake.

 

[Mysfitz]

feeding him 3 per feeding til they are gone will not hurt him.

if your feeding 2-3 every few days(5-7) it won't take long to use them up and it isn't going to hurt your snake to eat them.
for me as long as they are gaining 1 gram a week i am happy, altho if they only gain 1 gram a week for a couple of weeks then i add an extra item or upsize.

you only really need to worry if they start loosing weight.

 

[Morph Collector]

I wouldn't feed more than three because of the "length" of the food would be greater than the stomach of your snake... The pinkies will smash together, but they won't stack perfectly like in a freezer bag

 

[Nanci]

You can put them away, sealed up really well, and wait till you get a new baby! I've done that. When I stored them, I had no plans of getting another baby, but plans change. I also wouldn't feed more than three.

 

[Blue Apple Herps]

I wouldn't stress out too much about weights. A good rule of thumb to follow is to feed a prey item that is ~1.5x the widest part of the snake. For me, what I do starting from hatchlings, I feed a pinky until I can no longer see a noticeable bump. Then I feed two until I can no longer see a noticeable bump. Then fuzzies until no bump, then hoppers, then small, etc.

When feeding a snake or two, weighing out prey isn't that big of a deal. But when I have 30 snakes to feed (and a couple hundred during hatching season), I don't have time to deal with weights, so I go more by visual size. Just my 2¢.

*edit* I'm not trying to discourage people from following the Munson plan at all, just sharing my experience that I don't think weights of prey are that important compared to the size of the prey.

 

[patm1313]

In my experience, I have found frozen pinkies to be lighter then ones thawed in water, probably because the thawed ones carry extra water weight. Honestley, the weight is insignificant, so you can weigh either frozen or thawed and be okay. I would suggest weighing frozen, as it's easier. Another little bit of info I picked up whilst browsing on these forums is that if you buy mice from a place where mouse sizes vary, you can weigh each pinkie and seperate them into bags of different sizes. I do it, and even for one snake, it works quite well.

Hope I helped,
-Patm1313 :dgrin:

 

[Roy Munson]

*edit* I'm not trying to discourage people from following the Munson plan at all, just sharing my experience that I don't think weights of prey are that important compared to the size of the prey.

Not to worry. The author of "The Plan" hasn't weighed a prey item in eons...

 

[Wylie]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the helpful responses.

I just recently decided to weigh the pinkies I have only because I know they've been too small for my snake for quite some time now and I started wondering if perhaps I could and should use their weights to determine how many to give Flash so that he would be getting the same amount of food as he would be if I had bigger prey available. I thought that perhaps I could use the weight to determine how many 1 day old pinks to give him, give him as many as would add up to the same weight of prey he SHOULD be getting at his size. Am I making sense here?

However, since you all say no more than 3 at at time, then the weights are irrelevant.

 

[batwrangler]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the helpful responses.

I just recently decided to weigh the pinkies I have only because I know they've been too small for my snake for quite some time now and I started wondering if perhaps I could and should use their weights to determine how many to give Flash so that he would be getting the same amount of food as he would be if I had bigger prey available. I thought that perhaps I could use the weight to determine how many 1 day old pinks to give him, give him as many as would add up to the same weight of prey he SHOULD be getting at his size. Am I making sense here?

However, since you all say no more than 3 at at time, then the weights are irrelevant.

The more important thing here is what Flash weighs: he should be maintaing or gaining weight (not loosing it).

Also, how much of a lump do your pinkies form when he eats them and how long does it take for the lump to go away?

 

[Wylie]

The more important thing here is what Flash weighs: he should be maintaing or gaining weight (not loosing it).

Also, how much of a lump do your pinkies form when he eats them and how long does it take for the lump to go away?

You can barely tell he even ate anything even after I feed him 3 pinkies. The 1 day old pinkies are definitely smaller in diameter than the thickest part of my snake. Flash doesn't even have to unhook his jaw to eat them. 24 hours later you can't tell he ate at all, altho he is not usually active again until the 2nd day, 48 hours, after he eats. I still have about a quarter bag of 1 day old pinkies left out of a bag of 50 (don't know exactly how many are left).

I need to weigh Flash again to be sure, but I think I will be ordering small fuzzies for him on my next order.