New Garter Owner

[ShelBelle]

Hello, fellow garter lovers. This is my first time on the forum here as well as owning a garter.

We (sons and I) rescued (okay, kidnapped) a garter from our back yard. The kids named her Wendy to go with our cat's name Tinker Bell. We think she is a female because she is fairly narrow at her vent compared to the males; who seem to have wider vents to allow for the hemipenes.

Ok, this is my problem (or is it). Wendy is a wonderful eater. Unfortunately, all she wants to eat is fish (guppies). I have tried pinkies, earth worms, crickets, and meal worms. I also tried putting her in a feeding tank with just the food and she had no interest. I have been feeding live guppies to her in her pond. She seems to really enjoy the stalking of the fish and the ultimate kill.

I have had her for about three weeks now. So far she has eaten about twenty guppies. I just put them in her pond and feed them until she dines on them.

I guess what I am asking is if I am doing the right thing with her and if not what should I change and how. I am open to suggestions.

Thanks, and I hope you all have a wonderful day.

PS: I have had rubber boas as pets before and even had a live birth with one of them. They were very easy to feed; they loved mice.

[adamanteus]

Hi Shelley, and welcome to the forum.

I'm pleased to hear that your snake is feeding so well. If you want to add a little variety to her diet you could try 'scenting' a pinky....just rub a guppy all over it until it takes on the scent, then offer it to your snake. Maybe wiggle it a little to get her interested! Good luck.

[ShelBelle]

Thank you for the welcome and your suggestion. I will try that next time I feed her.

[drache]

hi ShelBelle
welcome to this forum
which part of the US do you live in?
there are a number of different garter species with different food preferences
most of them can be switched to eating frozen/thawed rodents with a few simple tricks, if they're not inclined to readily take them
they will definitely not take mealworms or crickets
many of them love earthworms, only nightcrawlers though
red wigglers are repulsive to them and possibly toxic
guppies are not a great diet long term, but nutritionally better than earthworms
also
Wendy may yet turn out to be a boy
how big is she?
and can you post a picture of the ventral side of her lower body and tail?
nice to meet you

[ShelBelle]

Thanks for the welcome and the added suggestions. I live in Sacramento, California. From the internet I have deduced that she is a common (not so common to us) garter. She has 7 not 8 scales on her upper lip. I guess that is what distinguishes her from being common and not common.

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard, Shelley.

Your snake seems to be doing well and James here gave some good advice, but I think it's OK to add that crickets and meal worms aren't a part of the garter diet anyway.

edit: Rhea beat me to it.

[Lulu Bennett]

hi shelly. nice of you to join us
as james said you should try scenting. it is working for me.
looking forward to and pics you may want to post
Lulu xxx

[enigma200316]

Hi, and welcome, you've already got great advice from the above...
so once again welcome to the family.......

[Sid]

Hi and another welcome to the forum.

[GarterGuy]

Howdy and welcome to the forum Shelley. As long as your garter is feeding well on the guppies that's a good thing. As far as other prey, what I've done to "convert" my baby garters over to mice is start by offering her guppies with forceps. She should still take them that way. After she's become acustom to that, take a F/T pinky..wash it off under the tap and rub it with a guppy. Offer the guppy first to get her "in the mood" for feeding. After the guppy offer her the pinky. Garters are usually such aggressive feeders that once she's "on" she'll bite first and think later. If she takes the pink (or pinky part depeding how big she is, if you do need to cut up pinks, it's easier to do it when they're frozen), the next feeding try just offering the scented pinky right off the bat. Next feeding or two, then just offer an unscented pinky. By that point she should start to recognize the forceps with food and take what ever you offer her on it. You can still give her a "pond" full of guppies every now and then too, and it shouldn't put her off of feeding from the forceps at all. Hope this helps.

Roy