baby reds and pinkies

For those of you who have raised red milks I have a question. How easily do they feed on pinkies. I ask for a couple of reasons. One, I just picked up a mate for my female but before I go through the trouble of breeding them I want to know how difficult it is to get them eating pinkies. Two, I just picked up a baby (2.72 grams and tiny) It finally ate a pinkie but it took me four days for one of my mice to drop a pinky small enough for it to eat. It had tried two others but gave up. If they feed readily on pinks then I will just add a few more mice colonies to increase the chance of getting babies (been considering that anyway) but if they are generally a difficult mouse feeder I may not want to bother.

Thanks

Steve Schindler

I find whole pinks are just too large for these guys and most other smaller milk hatchlings. Try severing the head and offering that. Once the snake is 6-12 months old, a full tiny pink is more reasonable. I've lost 2 hatchlings in the past from suffocation due to a meal too large.

Getting them to accept pinks (or parts) is a completely different matter. Some are off and running 2 weeks after hatch, many more will simply wither and die if not force fed a fat hopper tail weekly. They eventually come around, my personal record is a female greyband that was "assist fed" for 9 months. She's a year old now and chugs pinks happily.
Lizard scenting may help; I keep a box of Mediterranean geckos in the freezer which work fine with most Alternas but won't fool the Pales. Good luck, trial and error will guide you. Jeff