Do You Recommend Feeding Your Garters in a seperate Terrarium?

[Jack Neary]

Hi Everyone!
Do you move your pet Garters to a seperate space when you feed them or just place Minnows, Pinkies, etc.... right in their terrarium and let them go at it?
Thanks for all the great advice!
Jack

[infernalis]

Depends on the circumstances...

Our snakes in Aspen, eco earth and bark - we feed in a tote with no substrate in it.

The animals with cage carpet, I just toss in the food.

My biggest concern is ingesting substrate, I have seen it kill snakes.

[anji1971]

I always feed mine in a separate place. I use a plain old dishpan from the dollar store, and use it to feed in.
I had a snake that died after ingesting a piece of bark, and that's what made me start doing this.
However, if you have a snake that's extremely skittish, and you can't get it to eat in a separate bin, then using the enclosure they're already in is fine. Just make sure you place the food on a flat surface (a margarine tub lid works great!) and watch very closely that the snake doesn't swallow any substrate.

[drache]

currently I can feed all my snakes where they live, but it does depend and I do supervise
only snakes that are housed singly and are shy get their food items left in the enclosure

[crzy_kevo]

i feed george by hand usually, i tried feeding in a seperate area but she doesnt seem to like it so i just dangle the food in her face and watch carefully

[Garter_Gertie]

I feed Winnie as I hold her. I'm going to try and do the same with Jeepers, Peepers and Kenabec. If I'm not able to will feed in something seperate from their tanks because of the substrate.

[infernalis]

I have a Puget named "Sky" that will sit in my left hand and take food from my right hand, even if I could feed him in his enclosure, I like feeding him in my hand like that, so I always will.:D

BTW that is SKY in my avatar.

MK - Peepers has taken food from me, Jeepers is a shy one, and will hide from you. (who knows, you may have the "gift" and maybe Jeepers will take food from you):D

[Garter_Gertie]

Dekay, Jeepers will eventually. Trust me. We'll go at his pace. But eventually he won't be a scaredy cat. Will just take time.

Dave thinks I'm gifted with snakes. (shrugs)

[Gijs & Sabine]

It's impossible for us to feed all our garters seperate, so we put a dish with fish in each enclosure. Normaly there are no problems with that, only some species need some extra attention, for example our melanistics (they are very agressive at feedingtime)
Very important is to keep a very good watch at all the garters if everything is going allright during the feeding. If they bite eachother I have to interfere right away !! Aspecialy with the adults !
The (baby) mice and rats I feed individual by using tweezers.

This works alright for us, but we don't have a choice. If you have the opportunity to feed individual it's better. In that case you don't have any risk that they'll bite eachother.

[infernalis]

Who needs a seperate feeding area with this guy?

http://www.danceswithreptiles.com/sky/sky.jpg

[Garter_Gertie]

Winnie again today had baby rabbit drumsticks. I'd not washed my hands after cutting off the drumsticks and feeding Ripley his baby bunny... And Winnie bit me! I was more shocked than anything. She was trying her damndest - turning her head first one way then the other - trying to get my left 'dirty' finger in her mouth. There was nothing to be done but wait until she gave up. Which she finally did as she had a hold of the side of my finger near the first joint.

The bite's a wee bit tingley, but that's all. You can bbbaaarrrreeeelllllyyyy see two scratches smaller than what even a pin would make.

Naughty, NAUGHTY girl! Biting her muzzer! I guess she really like rabbit!

[infernalis]

http://www.reformedsniper.net/snake/bite.jpg

[Zephyr]

Ah... My first bad garter bite...
I was at the reptile show last month when I saw a nice parietalis for sale. I asked what the sex was and it was female. So the guy, with out me asking, took it out of the box it was and handed it to me. First came the musk. LOADS. Then the biting. It was horrible. She aimed for all the gaps in my hands and finally latched onto the upper side of the skin between my thumb and pointer finger. So I'm standing there, people staring at me, as this snake eats the living hell out of my hand. But I saw through it all; she was peeved at being out in the open, under a hot light, odd noises all around her...
Today she's a great eater, doesn't bite or musk while I handle her, not even when I had to use tape to remove her eye scales from a retained shed, and is very pleasant to me. But not to food. Her fitting name is Mizz Chopz. :P
They can be VERY nasty though. But not nearly as mean as Nerodia. *Shudder.* x.x

[Garter_Gertie]

There's a wee teen-tiny red area, about the big end of a pin. Else you'd never know. I think next week I'm gonna take her a pinky. She's had four drumsticks in two weeks. I'm not trying to starve her but I don't want her a fat pig either. She quickly calmed down so I guess her brain caught up to her tummy and she went into the log hidey I'd gotten her.

I think I could feed Winnie until she either pucked or popped. She's an eating machine!

[infernalis]

Ah...
They can be VERY nasty though. But not nearly as mean as Nerodia. *Shudder.* x.x

My Aqua never bit me yet, or musked. He goes all spaz, but no bites or musk yet, and we had him a year now.

http://www.reformedsniper.net/GSM/aquaface.jpg

[Zephyr]

Sorry, WILD nerodia. I've had some bad experiences with them...
Still want to keep one though. lol