Possibly a stupid question...

[DeadlyGlories]

Hello. I'm kind of new to keeping garters, and snakes in general... And I'm wanting to switch my garter over from minnows to pinks... But the problem I'm having is this...

I don't have the intestinal fortitude to cut the pinks into pieces, or handle them, once they have been. I have no problem with the whole ones, though.

I've looked all over, and I'm unable to find an answer to this...

How long/big around should a garter be, before you start trying to feed it whole pinks?

Any help in this would be much appreciated.

[Thamnophis]

Mine ate their first, complete pinky when they were about 25-30 cm. long

[DeadlyGlories]

Thank you so much! Mine is slightly longer than that, so I suppose now is the time to start trying, at least.

It's a shame that so many petstores know nothing of garter snakes. One of the local ones actually sold me a dozen goldfish to feed mine. It's sad, ignorance should never be tolerated in petstores. I finally found one who was knew garters could eat mice, I'll stick with them.

[abcat1993]

I can understand that, because at least they knew about them eating fish, but my Pet store feeds them crickets. My snake ate a pinky when it was about 10-12 inches long.

[adamanteus]

I seems that your Garter Snake is big enough to take whole pink mice, but don't forget the importance of variety in your snakes diet. You could vary his diet with various fish and occasional worms. Take a look at our Garter Snake Care Sheets.
http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets/index.php?title=Garter_Snake_Care_Sheet
You'll find an abundance of helpful information in there. And what you can't find, just ask in the forum. Welcome here, and enjoy yourself.

[mikm]

BTW ... it's not a 'stupid question'. I would venture to say those with an interest in this 'hobby' have (at least one time or another) garnered invaluable information from previously unknown sources. I find this to be a very nice (garter snake) community ... SO ... ask at will, lol :D

enjoy your evening,
marian

[Thamnophis]

Do you know what is "stupid"? When you have questions and you do not ask them.

[Stefan-A]

Stupid is not realizing that you have questions. ;)

[Thamnophis]

Stupid is not realizing that you have questions. ;)


Did you invent that yourself?
:D

[sschind]

BTW ... it's not a 'stupid question'. I would venture to say those with an interest in this 'hobby' have (at least one time or another) garnered invaluable information from previously unknown sources. I find this to be a very nice (garter snake) community ... SO ... ask at will, lol :D

enjoy your evening,
marian


At least you didn't say "there is no such thing as a stupid question" I work in retail, trust me there are such things as stupid questions.

you are correct however, the question asked by the OP was not a stupid question.

I started my snakes on pinkies when I found the smallest pinkies I could that were about twice the diameter of the snakes. That was easy for me however since I raise my own mice and I usually have a hundred or so babies at any one time to choose from.

In my experience the majority of people severely underestimate the size of prey their snakes can handle. I had one customer with a three year old corn snake and she was still feeding it 6 fuzzies at a time because "it didn't look like it could eat anything bigger" I got her switched to adult mice and saved her a bunch of money. Cost me some sales but gained me a customer for life.

I have one customer with 5 year old burm that she feeds "3 of the largest mice you have" about every 10 days, and she refuses to move it up because she "doesn't want it to get too big"

[Stefan-A]

Did you invent that yourself?
:D
Yeah. It's a neat platitude, isn't it? ;)

[drache]

In my experience the majority of people severely underestimate the size of prey their snakes can handle.

that may be true
I have found though, that when switching from minnows to pinkies, it's better to go smaller than what they might be able to handle, until they're familiar with the shape of the prey.
I offer legless pinkies as soon as a baby can handle a largish minnow. A few will go for that easily. The ones that don't I just keep feeding other stuff, until I deem them plenty big enough for un-mutilated pinkie. Then I make sure the ones I offer are thoroughly scented.

[DeadlyGlories]

Thank you.

Once again, everyone has been very helpful, and it's nice to know there's a place I can come when I have questions and whatnot, about my snake.

[Snaky]

It may be that your snake will not eat pinkies right away. You can always try scenting the pinkie with fish, most of the time that does the trick:)

[Thamnophis]

Yeah. It's a neat platitude, isn't it? ;)

Those are the best :D