Is my dad stupid?

[me_luv_moe]

i asked my dad to go out and buy some feeder goldfish for my new garter, but when he came back from the fish store, he baught 5 guppies. Are they too small for my snake, and will she still eat them? i put them in her tank about 45 minutes ago and i can still count five in her fish bowl. So in other words, will she eat them or do i have to go buy goldfish myself?

[Sputnik]

No, your poor Dad is NOT stupid, in fact he's quite clever...
Goldfish aren't as good for your garters as guppies if I remember right, so he did well. Now go and say "thank you, Dad! " lol

[adamanteus]

Your Dad did you a favour there.... Goldfish are toxic. They contain an enzyme called thiaminase which is a cumulative poison and will eventually make your Garter sick, then kill it. The guppies should be acceptable if your snake is ready to eat yet.

http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets/index.php?title=Thiamin,#THIAMIN.2C_THIAMINASE.2C_ .26_GOLDFISH

[me_luv_moe]

do you feed your snake guppies?

[adamanteus]

Not personally, I use trout, salmon, pinky mice and earthworms (night crawlers). Also occasional amphibians, but most people shy away from that because of the parasite risk.

[zooplan]

I had a fancy guppy bred when I started with garters and fed lots of them but a pure guppy diet is bad too.
And it right they are really small so its hard to breed enought although they were called "the millionfish"

[Sid]

Everyone has said it correctly. Dad did you and your snake a favor. When I do feed fish, I get Rosie minnows from the pet store. About the same price and larger.

[Lori P]

I feed guppies on and off, alternating with rosy red minnows and some huge silver minnows I just found recently at the bait store. So yeah, your dad gets kudos for not bringing you goldfish. :-)

[gregmonsta]

Your dad rocks!!!

[sschind]

Everyone has said it correctly. Dad did you and your snake a favor. When I do feed fish, I get Rosie minnows from the pet store. About the same price and larger.

If I remember correctly Rosies also contain Thiaminase.

[Snaky]

I saw that the link of James doesn't work ( at least for me ). So to be on the safe side:

Thiamin link (http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets/index.php?title=Thiamin,)

Another good fish and easy to get by is trout :)