I Am Sooooo Mad!!!!

[abcat1993]

My snake was eating a worm after being in my care for about a week with no succesful feedings, and it just HAD to drag it over the aspen and get wood chips stuck to it. F@$#%!#* snake! Agghhhh why will it only feed in it's cage?

[abcat1993]

my snake just ate. oops :p :D :eek: :cool:

[Thamnophis]

Garter snakes often drag their food through the soil.
This is not alwasy bad, but when you want to avoid it, place a large, flat stone in the terrarium (by preference in a corner) and place your fooddish on this stone, also as much as possible in the corner. This often helps.

How does aspen look? You have a picture of it?

[abcat1993]

this is aspen bedding that it is on

[jakob lejbølle]

wow thats just splinters, i would not use that kind of matrial in my terrarium, i would worry that my snake's could die if they eat it.

i use only cocopeat (i think it's called) in my terrariums, it is a brown substans made from coconuts, just like this Bucotec (http://www.bucotec.com/Bucotec/pages/Epagina1.html)

i never had any problems with it, in denmark you can buy it in most petstores, and i think it's the same in usa.
they are like bricks, and then you just add water, and you will get the best terrariumsoile ever :)

sorry for my bad english, hope you understand

[abcat1993]

I don't know why they would eat it and not coconut shavings though. They can't digest coconuts any more than a piece of aspen. I've also had plenty of people tell me to use aspen. Petco uses that brown stuff and half their garters are dead (they also feed them crickets). Also it sounds harder to bury into; aspen = fluffy

[abcat1993]

Ooops. and the stuff you talked about doesn't sound very easy to bury in (but i guess if they do it in dirt they could). and Aspen is very cheap, about 1-3 $ depending on where and how much you get it

[jakob lejbølle]

cocopeat is very easy for the snakes to bury them self in, so thats not a
problem, when the cocopeat brick has been soaken in water for a wile, it
will loosen up.
the snakes can't digest it, thats true, as you said youself, but it's easy to
for the snake to pass through there body, it's much smaller than the
aspen.
and when you feed your snake in it's terrarium, the ground material will
stick to the fish/worm or what ever you feed the snake, like you said,
thats why i think cocopeat is better.

i always feed my snakes in a clean plastic box, so i dont have the problem
you have, you just have to train your snake :)

i have just got a big block of cocopeat for about 13 dollas, there is about 70liters of cocopeat in it

[Thamnophis]

I know that lots of people use aspen bedding for their snakes. But mostly this are mouse-eating snakes like Pantherophis, Elaphe, Pithuophis, etc.

I do not know if aspen bedding is hard or soft, but when it is hard (and sharp) I would not use it, because this can damage their esophagus, stomach or intestines.
It is unavoidable that some of the bedding gets in the snake with its food.
I can not judge if this is bad in the case of aspen because I have never used it (or held it in my hands).

I personally use woodchips that are used for rodents etc.
I like this stuff. It has never given me any problems. Only important condition is that it is free of dust.
Sometimes a little piece of the woodchips are accidentally eaten bij the snakes, but I have never seen any constipation.

I have also used potting soil and this also gave no problems when it was digested.

[abcat1993]

Maybe it is a better deal then. I have seen those bricks though at Petco. Oh well, aspen is fine for right now.
PS: by the way, I now feed it in a separate container (those little plastic ones with the handles that you keep crickets in

[abcat1993]

If you use potting soil don't you have to cook it to kill everything first? (maybe not just for the snake, I don't want more insects in my house!)

[abcat1993]

How long does it take your snakes to eat a pinkie? mine has been "eating" it for over five minutes now and has made almost no progress

[abcat1993]

Oh great, it spit it out. Mybe I should try a smaller one or chop it up. could I chop it up after it is thawed?

[jakob lejbølle]

i would chop the pinky up befor it is thawed

[abcat1993]

I just chopped it and the garter doesn't want another worm or the mouse. I'll try later I guess

[CrazyHedgehog]

I thaw them all out... cut a few small ones up and mix it with chopped trout (fishy and bloody gunk.. yuk..) for the very small ones...

[Thamnophis]

When I used the potting soil, I did not cook ar heat it.
Also don´t do that with branches and so. I only scrub them with warm water.

[abcat1993]

Well, I just wanted to say that my snake has eaten her(?) first mouse. I put her in a plastic container with two halves of a mouse and a worm. When I checked back, everything was gone and the snake escaped into it's cage (the plastic container was in her cage and the lid wasn't all the way closed).

[Cazador]

Congratulations on your success, Matt. Great job. It was wise to have the container in her cage on your first attempt.
Rick

[Thamnophis]

That's great. Feeding in a container is a good solution to prevent that the snake eats the soil.