Feeding Adjustments

[ObsidianDragon]

Okay, so I've been making my head hurt trying to make sure I'm feeding my snakes correctly. There seems to be a lack of hard and fast rules, which makes me really anxious, I tell you!

Dart is my pastel checkered garter. I've had him since August, so he's...6 months old at LEAST. Probably more like 7? Shame on me, I didn't ask his breeder. Someone here has a couple of his siblings, maybe they were smarter than me and they know!

Anyway, he measured 17.8 grams yesterday (and boy was he not happy about being TOUCHED so I could find out.) He's been getting fed half a medium (ish, it varies) pink every 3 days, sometimes 4 lately because haha holidays.

Since my king needs to move to hoppers, I ordered 1 day pinks as well for Dart. I went with the tiniest of them so that I could try getting him to eat a whole pink again, hopefully with more success this time!

Since those pinks are only in the 1-2 gram range, how often would you be feeding them? Should I shift his 3 day schedule out to 4 at this age? 5? Stick with one pinkie, or try 2? I based my kingsnake's feeding ROUGHLY on the Munson's plan, but I think that is overkill for garters.

I could also phase in some nightcrawlers in addition to, or instead of, some mice feedings? I don't knoooow.

Any advice to make me feel better about feeding my little guy would be great.

[guidofatherof5]

Garter have a high metabolism. Like a sports car engine. A couple pinkies and a night crawler should be good every 3-4 days. You can see when they have digested there meal as the nice bulge will be gone. Giving a night crawler on a non food days as a treat is fine. Crawlers contain a lot of water and pass quickly. Unless you are stuffing your snakes everyday or so you shouldn't have a problem. Garters will let you stuff them if you want but that is bad for them. Post a few photos so we can see the size of you T. marcianus.

[ObsidianDragon]

Usually the poop is my sign Dart has digested his meal. ;)

The most recent photo I have where you can get any sense of size is over here (http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/general-talk/13941-can-i-stop-cutting-up-pinkies-yet-d.html). He hasn't been out and about as much lately where I can get photos of him--I usually walk in and catch him half out of his hide. Instant POOF, GONE snake.

I'll pick up some nightcrawlers to add to the mix. Maybe the additional bribery will convince him I'm not the devil? Haaaaaa.