Hungry, hungry Mama

[kibakiba]

So I have a female garter who I'm assuming is a year old. She's a little bit older than my male snake who is a year old... She's been eating a lot lately, 4 pinkies in 2 days and it's getting to the point where the bulge is just gone the next day... it's getting too expensive to feed her pinkies, and I really hate feeding her nightcrawlers because it stinks up my "critter room" which happens to be where I am all day... Lol, so she's a little less than 2 feet long and I have 2 fuzzies in the freezer but their too big for her to eat whole... Is there a way to cut it in half or in fourths without making feeding time a big bloody mess? If I added a calcium supplement to worms would that be okay for her to eat and make it a bit less stinky? I have a calciumhosphorus supplement that someone told me was good to put on worms for baby snakes to help keep their bones strong but when I was reading it, it said it was for turtles and lizards... it's from Flukers if that maters. The only reason I ask about the worms is, I literally have 100+ nightcrawlers and they keep breeding, so I have an unlimited supply of them.
Anyways thanks for any information you can give me!

[ConcinusMan]

I wouldn't worry so much about supplements. A light dusting on a worm once a month is plenty if that's all you're feeding them. I agree, worms are a PITA 'cause they go right through the snakes and make a big stinky poopy mess.

I don't have any problem feeding my snakes cut-up fuzzies. I simply cut them about in half while still frozen, then thaw in a ceramic dish. There's very little fluid/blood loss. If you're feeding your garters on rodents, you don't really need any supplements at all, and it's OK to give them a very good feeding of rodents and then let the snakes go without food for a week, provided that the snakes aren't rapidly growing babies. If you can find any kind of trout at the supermarket, many garters will go for that, and it's fairly inexpensive.

Rodents are by far the best food because they are nutritionally dense, produce less stinky mess, and you can feed much less often. If your snakes eat them readily, go for it and feed them worms and/or fish as only an occasional treat.

[kibakiba]

Well Mama's been eating so many that I've spent over 40 dollars this month on them. I cant afford to do it again, and I only have 2 fuzzies left. I was thinking that a worm dipped in the calcium sup,. would make it a little more solid when it comes out and less stinky, but i don't know how that works. Next month I'm buying some mice to breed so I can get whatever size I need for the snakes, but I don't have enough pinkies to hold me off until I'd have any ready to feed to them. I've got 2 very hungry young garters that love to eat and only 10 pinkies left. I guess I'll have to handle the stink of worm until I can buy more pinkies. I've looked at different types of trout and tilapia(?) around here and it's almost as expensive as buying pinkies, and Mama is a stubborn eater... It took me a couple months to get her on pinkies :P
Anyways, thanks for the reply

[drache]

have you tried just giving her a whole fuzzy?
she may surprise you

[ConcinusMan]

I've had 20 inch garters take fuzzies. It's really enough food to hold them over for 2 weeks. Shame you can't get them cheaper. I get fuzzies and pinkies for $1 each so it's not expensive at all. (check craigslist thoroughly for feeder rodents) Any of my garters that will take fuzzies get them just 2-4 times a month and I feed them farmed steelhead trout in between. It's cheap too. For $3 I got enough to feed 4 very large girls for several weeks.

[kibakiba]

Ahhh yeah I just looked at my boxes again, my mom had bought 2 boxes of fuzzies and one box of hoppers, no wonder they looked too big haha. But I do think she could easily eat a fuzzy now that I've seen one. Where we buy them we get a box of 3 pinkies for 6 dollars, and fuzzies were 15 dollars. It's grossly overpriced. Hopefully getting 10 mice to breed will hold off my 3 garters and have some extras for when I get more

[kibakiba]

I just tried feeding her one of my fuzzies, she seems scared of it. She strikes at it and then lets go and stares at it and slithers off. I figure maybe if i cut it in half it might be a bit less "scary". Right now I have it in a little dish in the tank... She's still pretty skittish so she may take it without me hovering over her tank with the tongs.

As I'm typing this she's opening her mouth and moving her jaws a bit it seems, and examining the fuzzy. Is that normal? She just dragged it out of the dish and left it, lol.

[Laura]

Cut it up, she probably thinks it's too big :P

[ConcinusMan]

I just tried feeding her one of my fuzzies, she seems scared of it. She strikes at it and then lets go and stares at it and slithers off. I figure maybe if i cut it in half it might be a bit less "scary". Right now I have it in a little dish in the tank... She's still pretty skittish so she may take it without me hovering over her tank with the tongs.

As I'm typing this she's opening her mouth and moving her jaws a bit it seems, and examining the fuzzy. Is that normal? She just dragged it out of the dish and left it, lol.

The fact she strikes at it is a good thing. She wants to eat it and so she's well on her way. Some of my snakes just took longer than others and they did the same thing yours are doing. It's not that they think it's too big, it's just that it feels foreign to them at first, so they drop it. Try chopping them in half (while still frozen) and scenting them well with fish, and keep trying. Eventually they'll get used to the feel of it and start swallowing them.

[kibakiba]

Yeah I ended up cutting it in half, she's on the second half now haha. She's finally got a bulge in her belly... the pinkies just weren't cutting it for her