Hellos!

[Holly]

Just joined here. Found a tiny little brown snake the other day on my way home from work and decided to keep him since it's cold out now. Read that their care is similar to Garters and followed a link to this site!

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard.

[Holly]

I named my little guy Noodle and offered him small cricket but he wasn't interested so I'm going out in a bit to fill a Kritter Keeper with leaves, sticks, dirt and any assorted soft bodied bus I can find. I'm thinking along the lines of roly polys, slugs, snails, and worms. Hopefully I can keep them going throughout the winter so he has enough food to last him!

[guidofatherof5]

Nice to have you here.
Sounds like you might have a Storia dekayi snake. Very common in a lot of parts. I've got a few myself. Slugs are their favorite food but they will eat very small earthworms or baby nightcrawlers. My young ones have to have the large slugs cut into pieces.
They are a very plain looking snake but beautiful.
I've found them to be more of a specialized eater and much more secretive than a garter snake.

[mustang]

welcome im Robert

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, Holly :)

[Stefan-A]

I named my little guy Noodle and offered him small cricket but he wasn't interested so I'm going out in a bit to fill a Kritter Keeper with leaves, sticks, dirt and any assorted soft bodied bus I can find. I'm thinking along the lines of roly polys, slugs, snails, and worms. Hopefully I can keep them going throughout the winter so he has enough food to last him!
Ignore the arthropods, you'll probably have better luck sticking to just worms, slugs and snails.

[drache]

welcome to the forum, Holly

[Holly]

He is a Dekayi, pretty small one too.

How exactly do you go about feeding them? Especially if you've cut the slug or what not into pieces? Do you have to play with them with tweezers or just put it in a dish and they'll eat them?
I do have a pair of feeding tongs I use for my geckos but would rather not use them for Noodle as he is WC and I'm keeping him away from my other pets for now.

I know with my geckos they will only eat a moving insect and they are very picky about what they eat as well.

[Mommy2many]

Welcome, Holly!

I too have a Dekayi. Mine will eat only slugs and eats them on the sly. I just put them in the tank and let him have at it when he is interested. They go & I have a very fat snake. Everybody (but the slugs) are happy!

Good luck!:D

[Holly]

Where's a good spot to look for slugs?

I'm in the city so there aren't many places to look. I know where to get snails and worms from but haven't really seen any slugs around.

[guidofatherof5]

Under boards, under leaf litter. Under and on rocks. They like to destroy gardens so around Veggies. You can also bait them to you by putting out some raw cabbage or other leaf veg. Slugs don't like direct sunlight so look in shady areas. Shady and wet or moist areas are where they will be found.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Get yourself a piece of plywood. Take a hose and spray it down real thoroughly with water and let it soak in as much as you can, then take said piece of plywood and choose an area in your grass to lay it. right next to a building works particularly well. Wet the ground underneath the spot where you want to put the board. Chop up and throw some veggies and lettuce on the ground there and put the board on top of it. Leave it alone for a few days. If there are slugs in the area, you better believe they'll be coming!!!

[gregmonsta]

Greetings :D

[drache]

I live in the city and find that every fall the carved pumpkins we leave outside will be invaded by small brown slugs
if you catch the right time of the night they come out of the openings (eyes mouth) and it's quite creepy

[Holly]

Thanks for all the help!

I went to the park today since I was done work early and found the motherload! A bunch of teeny snails and worms under some rocks and small logs, but only 1 slug, really big one too. Everybody there looked at me like I was mad, crashing around through a small wooded area, lifting up rocks and scooping up bugs.

I put a snail in with him and he's kinda been playing with it. I'll drop in a little worm and see if he's more interested in that.

[Holly]

Success with the worm! He ate! Now he's cruising around looking for more!

[guidofatherof5]

Success with the worm! He ate! Now he's cruising around looking for more!

Great job, Mom.:D
Now Noddles spoiled!

[Holly]

All my kiddos are spoiled!

[Lovok]

Thanks for all the help!

I went to the park today since I was done work early and found the motherload! A bunch of teeny snails and worms under some rocks and small logs, but only 1 slug, really big one too. Everybody there looked at me like I was mad, crashing around through a small wooded area, lifting up rocks and scooping up bugs.

I put a snail in with him and he's kinda been playing with it. I'll drop in a little worm and see if he's more interested in that.

I get just as much satisfaction from the odd looks people give me, as I do having the garter herself! :) Next spring (if I'm still living here), I intend to start asking people if I can harvest earthworms in the parts of their yards that are wooded and over-grown. Could probably make a few extra $$$ cleaning up yards in the process.

I found a LOT of worms yesterday when I was raking leaves in the yard. The recent 3 days of rain made everything so soaked and mushy, there was snakie food EVERYWHERE!

[guidofatherof5]

Remember,
Earthworms keep best at room temp and nightcrawlers keep best in the fridge.
If kept moist they will keep for a month or more.