Feeding ?

[GarterGuy17]

So I was told by Rhea that she hasn't eaten in about 3 weeks that she was cooling down , When would be a good time to feed her ?

[guidofatherof5]

You could start anytime. It may take her a little while to get settled into her new home.

[katach]

You can offer food as soon as you want. She may not eat right away though. They need to get settled in sometimes. If she doesn't eat just keep offering. I offered every other day with my new ones, until they started eating. How old is she?

[GarterGuy17]

About 2 months i think not completely sure she might be a little older.

[GarterGuy17]

WOW ! SHE IS EATING ! As soon as I offered her the pinky ( in half she went for it ) Ill upload the pics in a second !

[EasternGirl]

Awesome...

[chris-uk]

Great. Hungry snake I suppose, it's good when you get them to take their first meal.

[GarterGuy17]

By the way I have a question , when do you know to feed more portions of food ? like how to know when its time to give her more then one pinky .

[chris-uk]

Good question.

The pinky will have left a bulge in her middle, I don't know how to describe it in a quantitive way, but if it leaves a bulge but not a huge lump...
Can someone phrase it better than I seem unable to?

[EasternGirl]

It's tough...I have been trying to get a definitive answer on how much to feed for ages...the bottom line is...there is no correct answer I suppose...depends on the snake. Hermes is 5 months old and about 7 or 8 inches long...he eats half a pinky about every four days. I can see his stomach get a little lump in it...you can see a lump where the food is in the snake's stomach...the snake will look a bit bulgy around the middle. If she is two months old and how big is she? You gave her a whole pinky? I'd say she's good to go for a week...Best thing would be to ask Rhea how much she was eating and how often. My male eastern is about 2 feet long maybe now...but he is very small..his head isn't much bigger than my fingernail. He only eats one pinky a week.

[GarterGuy17]

Well actually I might be wrong about the age but she told me that she was eating 1 pink every 10 days but she stopped eating for about 3 weeks so I actually have no idea ill feed her next week and give her maybe 2 pinks and see if she eats it not completely sure.

[EasternGirl]

Well, you don't want to overfeed her. It's not good for them. Snakes can go a long time without food. It's especially bad for young snakes to overeat. So, if she was eating one pinky every 10 days then I would stay with that for a while. How big is she? she could probably eat more that one every ten days. I would go with one every 5 days. Can you measure her?

[GarterGuy17]

Well should I pick her up while she has the bulge ?

[EasternGirl]

Oh..no! Sorry...good catch! Don't pick her up after she just ate...she might throw up. Wait a few days and then measure her. For now, I would stick with feeding her one pinky about every 5-7 days. You are going to alternate with fish and worms which will digest faster...you just feed her a little piece of fish to equal a pinky amount of food...you can give a little more of the fish. If you give a worm, I'd say one to two big nightcrawlers...cut up.

[GarterGuy17]

Ill have to scent my fish though and see if she eats it but I have no access to worms so her diet will consist of pinkys and fish.

[EasternGirl]

Oh...you didn't find the worms? Okay...try cutting the pinky up into pieces and cutting up some fish and mix it all together on a little dish...or plastic lid...that should work. You can do big pieces..like cut the pinky into thirds or even quarters...and then cut up some little pieces of fish. But if you do pinky and fish...I would only use half a pinky and then add fish to equal a little more than a pinky's worth of food.

[GarterGuy17]

Well I did find worms at petco when I went to buy the aspen substrate , it was called can o worms. Dont really wanna risk it though.

[guidofatherof5]

Can o-worms is dried meal worms. Don't waste your money.
Night crawlers or earthworms only.
They don't come any way but alive.
"Redworms"(Panfish Worms-Walmart brand) are a no-no for garter snakes. They are toxic.

[EasternGirl]

Yeah...just stick to the fish and pinkies if you can't find earthworms. If you are in New York...you should be able to go to a park in the spring and summer after it rains and find earthworms in the ground. I get mine in my backyard when it's warm...people will think you are nuts, pulling earthworms out of the ground and sticking them in a cup...but you're in New York...actually...they probably won't even look twice!

[guidofatherof5]

Yeah...just stick to the fish and pinkies if you can't find earthworms. If you are in New York...you should be able to go to a park in the spring and summer after it rains and find earthworms in the ground. I get mine in my backyard when it's warm...people will think you are nuts, pulling earthworms out of the ground and sticking them in a cup...but you're in New York...actually...they probably won't even look twice!

You must keep in mind the area where you get them.
It should be pollutant, fertilizer and herbicide free ground.

[EasternGirl]

Oh right...might be tough in New York...they do have some nice parks there though...are you in the city? I guess they probably use fertilizer at most parks though. Good catch Steve! I didn't even think of that...We don't use any of that stuff in my yard.

[katach]

Do you have a Walmart or Fred Meyer where you are? They sell worms. I prefer the Walmart worms because there are sold in soil. The Fred Meyer ones are in a paper mix. We get 20 Canadian Nigh Crawlers for $2.89. They are big and plump and our babies love them as a mid week snack or a meal for our non pinkie eaters.

[GarterGuy17]

Nope I have none of that anywhere near mean I have never heard of Fred Meyer actually so access to worms is very low at the moment.

[katach]

Fred Meyer must be a west coast place. We have gas stations around here that sell worms too, but we have lots of lakes and places to go fishing here. Sorry man.

[jamromhem]

another option you can look at is African Night crawlers. They are not like the Canadian night crawlers and can be raised in your house in a small container. They are not the fastest growing worms, but easy enough to keep.. I keep red worms indoors (for my plants not my snake). Toss in some news paper shredding and some lettuce or other vegy scraps after you get them settled in and it is that easy. If you might think about raising your own worms to feed snakes, check out Vermicomposting. You will find a ton of information on raising worms.

4 worm types easily grown indoors
red wigglers (bad for snakes)
European night-crawlers (Called Giant red wigglers, not sure if they are poisonous or not.... )
African Night crawlers. (No relation to reds to the best of my knowledge, but could use more looking into.
Blue Worm (a bit more difficult to keep in it's bin as they seem to go where they want even if it isn't best for them)

Not completely on topic, but might be useful to note for the people having issues even finding worms. There are places that the worms can be ordered in bulk to let you start your bins.

[EasternGirl]

I think anything called a red wiggler I would stay away from. I would stick to the ones that we are absolutely sure are safe.