I got them as hatchlings. I fed every five days. I slit the mice, always. When they were on small adults, (20-21 gram mice) I moved them to every seven days and stopped slitting. The snakes would be 180-200 grams at that point. Mine were REALLY slow to start, not keeping up with my bloodred clutch at all. Once they got on hoppers, though, they TOOK OFF! I feed roughly by the Munson Plan, but conservatively. And I sort my mice into peach, small, medium, large fuzzies, small and large hoppers, small and large weanlings, even going so far as to weigh a bunch of mice to find the perfect size for the snake. So instead of just going from double pinks to fuzzies, I do peach fuzzies, then small (7g) fuzzies, then 8g fuzzies, then 9g fuzzies, then 10g hoppers, then I get slightly less specific, but still stay in the small, medium, large categories.