Some wild-caught garter snakes

[Akuma223]

Hello all, over a period of about a month I have caught four garter snakes. I have two little babies named Theodore (bigger one), and Alice. I caught Theodore a few weeks ago and Alice yesterday when I found her under a rock. My two adults are Cordelia and Copper. The two adults are in a twenty gallon tank together with an under tank heating pad, repticarpet, a large water bowl, and lots of branches to climb on. The small ones are in a ten gallon together with a shallow shell for a water dish that's big enough for them to curl up in, moss, climbing space, repticarpet, and a heat lamp.
The heat lamp gets switched between both cages at regular intervals so they all have time to bask, the little ones get it more because they don't have an undertank heating pad. I have been feeding frogs, tadpoles, goldfish (I now know this is a no no), and earthworms. I am just trying out the repticarpet to see how I like it. Any and All suggestions are appreciated. I have fallen in love with my little snakes and want to do my Best for them. All of them have adapted nicely to captivity. The only snake that hasnt eaten yet is Alice. I will post pictures when I get home from school.

[guidofatherof5]

Nice to have you with us.
The care sheet is a good read. Here's a link.
Frogs and tadpoles are also a risky food. They usually carry a high parasite load.
Garter Snake Forum - Garter Caresheet (http://www.thamnophis.com/index.php?page=caresheet)

[Akuma223]

I'm not too worried about feeding frogs and such considering they are wild caught and are probably used to it.

[guidofatherof5]

I'm not too worried about feeding frogs and such considering they are wild caught and are probably used to it.

No offense but I would disagree with continuing to feed a food source that could be potentially dangerous.
In the wild is one thing but when they come into our care we should strive to offer a safer/better food source.
Just my opinion.

[setfree]

Welcome to the forum! :D

[MCwyo]

I agree with Steve... Your goal should be to make the snakes free of all parasites if you want to do the best for them :) Feeding them food that could have lots of bad parasites will just cause them discomfort and shorted thier lifespan. Try picking up some frozen tilapia fillets. They're not very expensive and one bag of them will last quite a while (I pay about $5 for a bag at my local Wal-Mart).

[guidofatherof5]

I would be very cautious of prepackaged frozen fish products.
I have lost baby snakes to it and so has Wayne(infernalis).
I now buy only fresh, never frozen tilapia from a seafood counter. I've even stopped buying salmon because I found pinworms in it.
In my opinion there could be a host of problems with the prepackaged stuff. Heavy metals, preservatives, etc.
Watching some of my beautiful baby radixes die a terrible death told me to never buy it again.
I've been switched to tilapia for over a year now and have no similar incidents.
Just my opinion.

[MCwyo]

Thanks for the heads up Steve. I do only buy preservative free frozen tilapia... I don't really have a source for fresh tilapia (or any other kind of fish) here... unless I catch it myself. One grocery store has a large seafood counter but their "fresh" seafood is previously frozen (I used to work there). So I don't know if that would be much different than buying what I buy now? I did stop feeding salmon all together. What were the sympthoms when you scrubs got sick? I'm kinda worried now. But all my little buddies are super active and growing like weeds.

I should add, everyone but Ember will flat out refuse to eat worm bits. I have scented the worms with tilapia and they will actually spit the worms out :(

[ssssnakeluvr]

in the wild the snakes have the chance to pass the parasites off when they defecate and leave the area....in the cage the will continue to crawl around in the infected feces and reinfect themselves. this can cause the snakes parasite load to build to dangerous levels for the snake

[ProXimuS]

Another thing I worry about with the parasites, is that some things could possibly be passed on to humans or other animals if you happened to forget to wash your hands or anything.

[guidofatherof5]

Yes. Pinworms, hookworms, roundworms and tapeworms.

[infernalis]

There is far safer foods to feed than wild amphibians.

With the availability of frozen fish, earthworms and frozen pinkie mice, there is no reason to gamble with the welfare of your new captives.

[guidofatherof5]

Thought this link would be good.

http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husbandry/9914-note-concerning-pre-packaged-frozen-fish.html

[snakeman]

Any wild caught snake ruins the risk of succumbing to a parasite overload.best to go to a vet and get it taken care of. But you need to get the feeding problem taken care of first.I don't recommend any store bought fish unless it is wild caught. I read an article about farmed tilapia.they more or less said bacon was better for you.they feed the fish nothing but crap to get then to grow faster.keep feeding them what you are feeding them.stay scenting pinks with the foods you are using now.eventually they will switch to the pinks.good luck