Do garters regulate their own diets?

[d_virginiana]

When I took Harley to the vet after her issue with this last shed, he mentioned that I should try and feed her as much oil and fat as I could to keep the skin healthy as possible until the next shed. Thing is, I haven't had to try that at all, because even though she normally eats whatever I put in front of her until I stop giving her food, all she's touched since her shed problem has been silversides. Which is great, because fish have more Omega 3's than anything else she could be eating.
This could be coincidence, but it does make me wonder if more typical hunger strikes may not just be because they enjoy eating a particular food, but because they need more of a certain nutrient.

What are you guys' opinions on that?


(Harley is still improving btw, though I don't think she'll be 100% back to normal until she sheds again)

[guidofatherof5]

I think it could be a little bit of all those possibilities. I also think many garters are garbage cans and will eat whatever normal food is offered.
They may refuse a certain food but usually the next feeding has them eating it again. Hunger wins out most of the time.

[kueluck]

There's always salmon, mine LOVE this stuff. I just don't feed it often because of the oiliness which makes it so fatty.

[d_virginiana]

Yeah, I normally try to balance fish/mice/worms pretty evenly because of that reason too. Recently I've been feeding a lot more fatty stuff because of Harley's issues, and my older snake that seems to need more fatty foods to keep his weight at a healthy place..

[thamneil]

I don't think she is refusing foods other than silversides due to her body's requirements. As a generalist, garters eat whatever they recognize as food, whenever it is available. That being said, they do go through phases where certain foods do not appeal to them.

I would think of it more as a coincidence than anything.

[d_virginiana]

As a generalist, garters eat whatever they recognize as food, whenever it is available.

Tell that to my dad's garter snake jk/jk (there's been a two-month long epic battle to get him to eat anything)

[thamneil]

That's how I'm feeling with my batch of water snakes right about now.

[Invisible Snake]

To answer the original subject question, no. Garters and other snakes will stuff themselves silly every chance they get because of their primal instincts.

In the wild, snakes never know when their next meal is going to come or if it's safe to venture out and look for food and they also stuff themselves to build up fat reserves for brumation.

[Selkielass]

My snakes overeat pretty readily- especially on rodents.
Abby and Ziva became fairly obese before I started more closely tracking their diet.
They do seem to get in the 'mood' for certain foods, and go for them more eagerly.
Abby and my other Michigan born snakes are all in the mood for worms right now, and will come right out of the cage to take them from my hands. Mice and fish get nosed about for a while before they decide if they are hungry enough to eat some, and then they may