What is a red hot? Notes on prey sizing

Its easy to get a little confused by prey size labels in mice.
If you're looking into buying a snake and the breeder tells you they're feeding on "pinkies" what exactly does that mean? If you google it you'll find that a pinky is a baby mouse that doesn't have any fur. That's a good enough explanation for larger snake species. However, it doesn't serve you well in house snakes, or other species that start out life very small because the size of a newborn "pinky" can be 8 times smaller in weight than a large "pinky". 

Here's a look at pinky mice sizes starting at newborn (or "redhots" as they are called here in Florida). Newborns are typically half a gram in weight to 1g. Small pinkies are about 1-2 gram. Medium are 2-2.5g. Large pinkies are 2.5-3.5 grams, Peach fuzzy are roughly 3.5-4.5 grams. Fuzzies are 4.5-6. 

This is the way that I personally organize my sizing however, and different rodent breeders may use different labels, or different gram weights to describe each of the same labels. Many prey sources will not have "pinkies" broke down into as many sizes as this either. 
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For example, One prey source: Rodentpro.com breaks their sizing down ​like this: 

photo credit: Rodentpro.com

Laynelabs uses different labels- doesn't use the "peach fuzzy" label at all. Also uses different gram weights.

photo credit: Laynelabs.com

Other sources may not use as many breakdowns at all. like AmericanRodent.com

photo credit: americanrodentsupply.com

So if you walk into a pet store and order a "pinky" you could be given a prey item anywhere from half a gram to 4 grams. To make matters even more confusing, rodents can mature differently, especially across different breeders, so using a lack or presence of hair to label prey can get you different results. 

So if you're raising a very small snake, its best to compare gram weights when looking for prey source, not label names. For most species a few grams difference isn't going to be an issue, but in very small snakes it can be. Typically speaking, a 5 gram hatchling is not going to want to eat a 4 gram "pinky" no matter how it's presented. 

So if your hatchling was started on "newborn" pinkies. It is not reasonable to assume they would be willing to eat large pinkies. It is possible that they can, but they probably will not.

Don't get me wrong, House snakes are capable of eating enormous prey relative to their body size, but that doesn't mean they will *want* to. especially as young hatchlings. 

A wild house snake eats a large bird

Photo Credits: https://latestsightings.com/single-post/snake-swallows-bird-3-times-its-size-rustenburg

I think its prudent to mention here that although size matters greatly to hatchlings that are feeding on their own, that doesn't mean you start them by force feeding them pinky heads or chopping the mice up, anything like that.

I personally start all hatchling house snakes on whole live newborn mice, up to 2 grams in weight max, and they will stay on that size for the first couple months or longer depending on size at hatching. We start to switch them to frozen after their 4th meal. As they grow the size of prey begins to matter less and less, but very young hatchlings that haven't developed their confidence will need appropriately sized prey to be willing to eat on their own. So it does matter.

I hope this helps to explain some of the confusion surrounding prey sizing with house snakes. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. :) 


p.s.: I list some online prey sources here for illustrative purposes only. Their inclusion in this post is not sponsored by them, and is not in any way an endorsement of their products, Ok? ok. 

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