Frozen mice = fail?? Thoughts please.

[Lee]

K so I have went out and purchased a pinkie for my new foot long wandering garter, and an adult mouse for my 28" female garter. Problem is, the new arrival is taking no interest at all to it. The female played with it tugged it around then just left it somewhere and went off. I had to retrieve both and they just aren't showing interest. I know the when I fed my female a rap pup she went insane and ate it but it was live. For some reason there is very little interest in these frozen rodents. I don't have any fish to scent it with either so I'm kinda stuck now. I don't want to waste 3.50$ and I want them to eat. Possible to feed live adult mouse to my female ? Will they harm her? I know the little one might go for live pinkies which dont bite back..

[abcat1993]

It was probably too big for her. My garter does the same when fed too large worms, just try to eat them then drop them off somewhere. I wouldn't feed an adult mouse to a garter since they aren't constrictors and it would be extremely difficult to kill without being injured.

[Lee]

My garter can eat adult mice. She was eating full grown mice from the mouse traps when I had her a year ago and she was only probably >24". The rat pup she ate not too long ago, was bigger than this mouse. Any ways to kill a mouse from the store without making a mess other than co2? I don't wanna go refill my co2 tanks at the paintball store only to kill a mouse with it lol..

[abcat1993]

If a rat pink was smaller than it it must have been pretty small. I guess all the adult wild mice I've seen have been tiny, but I interpreted it as a big, store-raised mouse.
@Lee: I'd freeze it or flick it in the face or something (I probably got that second one wrong). We all discussed it in a thread but I have no idea what it was called.

[Lee]

If a rat pink was smaller than it it must have been pretty small. I guess all the adult wild mice I've seen have been tiny, but I interpreted it as a big, store-raised mouse.
@Lee: I'd freeze it or flick it in the face or something (I probably got that second one wrong). We all discussed it in a thread but I have no idea what it was called.
Nono, the rat pink had fir and was about as long as an adult mouse, just was bulkier. The mouse in there now is a normal frozen mouse, from like gourmet rodent company or w/e. Got it at petco. I don't want to freeze the mouse I get live, I want it to never get cold, basically kill it instantly and that way be more fresh. Plus I don't want mice in the freezer.

[rtcphoto]

The way I got my young garter to eat thawed pinkies was to put them in it's water dish along with a couple of live feeder fish. Once it starts thrashing around in the dish, it grabs on to anything. Now it will eat the pinkies without the fish being in there.

[Lee]

Could work, but only if the baby eats before the adult, I guess if I take the large female out while the young one feeds or put the young male in a seperate enclosure to feed with it might work.
BTW, anyone ever fed lizards? Think my female would take a fence lizard if I got one?

[GarterGuy]

Ok, just kind of picked this up from the discussion, but do you have your young garter in with your adult wandering garter??? This could be VERY risky....wandering garters are well know for feeding on other snakes...including other garters. It'd probably be best to seperate them and try feeding them seperately. For the adult, the motion of the live rat pup, probably did get her going to take it, but I wouldn't use a live adult mouse. There's always the chance it could injure the snake. I don't even feed my big PI kind live rodents for just this reason. If you keep the mice frozen, they'll keep for quite a while....so you could wait to get some fish to scent them with. I keep frozen mice for months (I buy them in large amounts) with out any problems. You could also use earthworm slime to scent the mice as well. Hope this helps and hope your little one doesn't end up becoming a snack!:eek:

Roy

[Lee]

Ok, just kind of picked this up from the discussion, but do you have your young garter in with your adult wandering garter??? This could be VERY risky....wandering garters are well know for feeding on other snakes...including other garters. It'd probably be best to seperate them and try feeding them seperately. For the adult, the motion of the live rat pup, probably did get her going to take it, but I wouldn't use a live adult mouse. There's always the chance it could injure the snake. I don't even feed my big PI kind live rodents for just this reason. If you keep the mice frozen, they'll keep for quite a while....so you could wait to get some fish to scent them with. I keep frozen mice for months (I buy them in large amounts) with out any problems. You could also use earthworm slime to scent the mice as well. Hope this helps and hope your little one doesn't end up becoming a snack!:eek:

Roy
Both are wandering garters, I'll be feeding the large female enough to keep her away from the male, whom I measured at nearly 16" (not exact). That live rat pup was the only live rodent shes had while in my care. Shes taken frozen a few times and WC dead before just now shes not interested. Could be the seasonal diet thing being talked about in the other topic. Plus, the S/O doesn't want mice in the freezer

[drache]

oh those S/Os
it's uncanny how many S/Os don't want rodents in the freezer
it's always puzzled me and I've not had the courage to ask, but I must:
what is so offensive about storing dead frozen rodents along with the dead frozen other animals (presumably beef, chicken, fish, pork, etc)?
once they're dead, they cannot do offensive rodent things and once they're frozen they don't contaminate anything either
so what is the problem?
sorry about going off topic a bit here

i have not personally experienced any cannibalism amongst my charges, but I do make sure snakes kept together are roughly the same size

[ssssnakeluvr]

how long have you had the new smaller garter? it can take up to a couple weeks for them to acclimate to the new home before they eat....

[Lee]

drache: Well fear of mice for one, not wanting them next to the food we eat. Some crazy thought that they can make you sick even though they are frozen.. You know just the basic can't fight it ;*( I was lucky to get brine shrimp in the freezer lol!
Yea I'm watching the 2 snakes closely when they eat, its near impossible to find a large enough male for my female becaus my female is so large (almost 2 and a half feet), males don't get that big hehe but I'm not too worried about them eating eachother TBH, just gotta take one of them out when I use live fish . :)

ssss: Got him yesterday. My female ate a day after I got her I believe who knows it might take this one awhile!

BTW, anyone have any idea about the fence lizards as food?

[ssssnakeluvr]

I have had wanderings eat sagebrush lizards before...was kinda surprised...didn't know they would eat them!!!!

[Todd6494]

We got our 2 w/c garters started on frozen mice without a problem. Started with nightcrawlers for a few days, then put the mice in a bowl and let the crawlers scent them. Then they were takin the mice right out of my hands! We were blessed with how smooth the transiton went.

[abcat1993]

My snake was similar, but now it rejects food for a while, then goes back on feed perfectly for a while, then repeats the process.

[Snaky]

Wait a week before you give it anything again and let the male acclimate. It's not always that the snake settles down very quick. After that you can try every 3 days untill he eats. I also feed males and females together, just watch them carefully. The male can however be intimidated by the female. This means that he keeps on refusing food, then you need to feed them seperately.

I can't comment on the cannibalism, I don't own the species:(.

[Lee]

I have acheived victory. He at a fish scented pinkie moments ago. Female at a fish scented fuzzy. I'll be trying him on a fuzzy next week and I'll put the female back on adult scented mice, that I hope to prekill and not get frozen. Wonder if the female will eat the remaining 2 pinkes and 20 minnows. And omg, today's feed cost me 8.25! Dang it prices are annoying, I wish I had online feeders I could freeze but alas no freezer for me.

[Sputnik]

It's so infuriating and worrying when a snake won't eat. Our female garter had been eating fine since we got her, but suddenly about 3 weeks ago started refusing food. No earthworm, no fish, no fluffs can tempt her. Otherwise she seems well. The cornsnake we bought a few weeks ago ate before we collected her, but is still refusing to eat for us. Apart from the obvious worry about the snakes, the waste of food is beginning to bother me.

[Stefan-A]

My female has taken only 2 small fish (haven't tried mice, the waste of food bothers me too) in the last 7 weeks (mated maybe 6 weeks ago), only worms will do. So that's what I've been giving her, with plenty of Nutrobal (vitamin+calcium supplement). She's been eating very well before, so I'm not worried (which is why I ask people if I should be), she's in good shape and hasn't lost any weight.