They won't eat :( is cat food really ok?

[Philminator]

So only 1 of my 4 eastern garters are eating and it's been amost a week :( the tiny one is a real pig and is always biting me and eating worms :) I read somewhere that you can feed your snakes cat food? really? or is this a joke? I have 2 cans of canned cat food seafood supreme and whitefish and tuna, I'm assuming that the whitefish and tuna might be good? should I try it? or will it kill them?
PS I hear so many mixed feelings about garters eating cat food, it's like is it ok or not? very frustrating to not have a clear answer when googling :P

[kibakiba]

Don't feed them cat food. You do not know what is in there and if you love the snakes, I wouldn't even dare try it.

Keep offering food, they will eat when they are ready.

[Philminator]

Don't feed them cat food. You do not know what is in there and if you love the snakes, I wouldn't even dare try it.

Keep offering food, they will eat when they are ready.

ok, it was on gartersnake.co.uk by Allen who said he's been using it but I was skeptical

[kibakiba]

Natural cat food, like 100% natural might be okay depending on what its in. Some companies will use salt in their cat food, which will kill baby snakes. Most commercial companies will put some sort of medicine in their cat food, which doesn't seem like it would be good for the snakes at all. If anything, if you want to give them fish, a little frozen thawed salmon, trout or tilapia is much better, and cheaper in the long run.

[Didymus20X6]

Snakes are not cats. At least not the last time I checked. And last time I checked, Purina doesn't make a Snake Chow.

[Philminator]

my goal is to have them eating worms and then eventually switch them to mice :)

[d_virginiana]

I barely even trust cat food for my cats... The guy that posted that is either lying or he's been very lucky nothing has happened to his snakes.

[Philminator]

I barely even trust cat food for my cats... The guy that posted that is either lying or he's been very lucky nothing has happened to his snakes.
I hear ya, I have 2 cats and I barely trust that canned stuff.
Alan's Garter Snakes - Maintenance of Garter Snakes (http://www.gartersnake.co.uk/maintenance.htm#Cat%20food) is where I got that info ....good news is 2 of 4 are now eating, I had to place my "male" in a seperate container and within a minute he attacked the worm :D, the third is in shed he/she doesn't need to eat , going to try the 4th now to see if I get lucky

[RedSidedSPR]

Heck. No. There's my answer. ;)

[mb90078]

I would exhaust other options first. Feeding them in their main tank, feeding them in a separate tank, feeding them as a group, feeding them solo, feeding them at different times of the day, different food items (maybe live fish), etc etc etc.

To answer your question, to my understanding, yes, people have done it on rare occasions, but it is definitely not recommended.

[infernalis]

I understand your confusion, Alan Frances website does give the appearance that he knows what he's doing.

However my own personal experience has shown that salt consumption in small Thamnophis leads to kidney failure rather quickly.

[Mix]

I don't actually know if he updates that website anymore. The latest dates mentioned were 2005/06 from what I can tell - perhaps he has experienced problems, just hasn't updated since?
I would no way use cat food, especially since - through my experience - it can be risky enough with fresh food that is supposed to be ok.

[drache]

may I also point out that a week without food is no reason to panic - even with new-borns
a week isn't even soon enough for worry or even concern, except of the very mild variety
forget about the cat food

[BLUESIRTALIS]

If they seem interested you might could use some of the juice for scenting pinky parts. Alan has real nice snakes, but i still would not feed mine anything processed.

[Philminator]

yeah I haven't and won't give them any cat food lol the more I think about it the more insane it seems to do so but I'm no expert. Most are eating now only 2 aren't and that is because one is about to shed and the other I caught I think had a full belly already :)

[brain]

I read somewhere that you can feed your snakes cat food?

FYI food packaged for your domestic animals is really held to a higher stand of processing than the foods you eat.

The main issue I would be concerned with is, as it is held to a higher standard it is my observation that these products consist mainly of corn or a meal product.

I do not believe I have seen snake chewing on an ear of corn.

[Didymus20X6]

... except maybe a Corn Snake!! *Ba-doom! Tssh!*

[RedSidedSPR]

*crickets chirping*

[ConcinusMan]

For what it's worth, I liked the joke. Good one. Michael left that one wide open for ya.

[RedSidedSPR]

I did too, i was just joking.

[brain]

For what it's worth, I liked the joke. Good one. Michael left that one wide open for ya.

I just couldn't finish it ;)