on feeding Long large night crawlers

[dakota11]

Hi everyone, I have an adult albino garder snake. When you feed large night crawlers, do you cut them or feed them whole? Do you just put them in a bowl or use tongs? She is use to eating ft mice with tongs. Thanks

[guidofatherof5]

Adults certainly take adult worms. Tong or bowl will work.

[d_virginiana]

Same as Steve said.

If you're used to feeding mice, keep in mind you'll have to feed comparatively a lot more nightcrawlers to get the same amount of nutrition :)

[Zdravko092368]

I feed my big girl seriously large nightcrawlers, some as long as 15" no problems. I feed by hand because it's fun but you can put them in a bowl no problem.


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[d_virginiana]

Where the heck do you get nightcrawlers? I get mine from WalMart and I've never seen one anywhere near that size lol

[Zdravko092368]

My backyard at night after it rains a lot, that brings out the biggest ones. I usually like to leave the mega nightcrawlers though cause i'm sure ones that big are like 4-5 years old. Even the average size ones from the yard are bigger than walmart/petstore ones though and probably a lot more nutritious.

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[Albert Clark]

I always thought nightcrawlers should be cut up prior to feeding to adult garters bc of the propensity of them to crawl back out of the snakes digestive tract? Fact or fiction? True or untrue?

[dakota11]

Thank you all for the replies, glad the foot long night crawlers don't have to be cut. I cut them up last night yuck! Anyways this snake has been fed mice by the previous owner first two years as well as the year that I've had her. How many roughly and how often would you feed night crawlers? She eats a hopper a week. I'm familiar with balls and corns. this varied diet is something all new to me.

[d_virginiana]

I would immediately stop feeding hoppers and feed a couple pinkies instead. There have been several instances on here where garters have died from impaction from mouse fur. It just doesn't seem like their digestive tract is meant to handle it. It doesn't always happen, but it's just not worth the risk. I won't even feed mine the occasional lightly-furred pinkie that gets mixed in with the others.

Hm... If I were going to feed just worms for a week I'd probably feed them twice a week. If they're getting mice as well, I'd probably give them their mouse, then give them some worms halfway through the week. Worms are harder to judge as far as number than mice (because 'three worms' could be totally different sizes) so I'd just feed until either they stop wanting them or you judge they've had enough to eat.

Haha, the garter metabolism is WAY faster than BPs and corns. So that means feeding more often and cleaning a lot more poop lol.
Out of curiosity, what kind of BPs do you have?

[guidofatherof5]

I agree with Lora. Lost a couple very nice snakes to fur. Not worth the risk.

[Zdravko092368]

An alternative option is hairless mice, i've heard of some distributors selling hairless variety. Also pinky rabbits or guinea pig would be larger than pinky mice and still be hairless if you can find them.

[dakota11]

I never thought of the fur situation being an issue.
pastel champagne, firefly, bee, albino are what I'm working on

[d_virginiana]

I never thought of the fur situation being an issue.
pastel champagne, firefly, bee, albino are what I'm working on

Yeah, most snake species are perfectly fine with fur... Only other fairly common pet species I could see having a problem with it would be water snakes.

Nice! My only BP is a normal that I ended up with because the petstore had deemed her too 'aggressive' to sell :cool:.