Mice make garters bigger then on worms?

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I don't know the answer to your question for sure, but as an educated guess-I'd say that, while a varied diet may not be necessary, it is also not necessarily harmful-and in many cases may be beneficial-as long as the keeper (like yourself) is extremely careful about the issues of parasite transmission and thiaminase.

I know you keep and breed red-striped ribbons, and I would NEVER recommend feeding that species a rodent-only diet!

right now my holdback trio are getting a pinky or silverside strips every other feeding! The funny part is the first time I offered pinkies I did it without any scenting and they went CRAZY for them!!!

[BChambers]

right now my holdback trio are getting a pinky or silverside strips every other feeding! The funny part is the first time I offered pinkies I did it without any scenting and they went CRAZY for them!!!

Now that really surprises me -the ones from around here (Cibolo Creek, Kendall County, TX) turn up their noses at pinks!

[charles parenteau]

Right on,I agree with you.

I think that water snake and most garter snake should be feed with everything they eat in wild ,we denature their diet when giving rodent.
At first if you do the opposite of what they do in nature problems of any kind becomes inevitable.

Trout mixture is not found in nature but experience told me its better,this is the best alternative I think.DrBlais is in my mind a real master hes really on a other level,he was feeding his garter for years with rodent and he no longer doing this.I saw the change over the years.that enough to convice me .

Trout jellow can be as bad as rodent if you don't do it right,this is not mother nature ,its man made.Symptome for lack or overload of vitamine are almost the same.this method is not for everyone,only time will tell if you do it right.THat make big garter snake...but big garter snake don't mean healthy snake ,big litter ect,its just a big garter snake wich is cool...



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It makes sense to me that your Quebec sirtalis may well find UV light very beneficial, while my marcianus do fine without it. Canadian sirtalis-indeed, all northern forms of Thamnophis, are primarily diurnal. They are adapted to lots of solar exposure due to the cold nights you experience, even in midsummer. Down here in Texas-and other hot, dry habitats- our garters don't dare show their faces when ol' sol is above the horizon! Most foraging, breeding etc is done at night.

Again, these things are easier to figure out if we look at how our snakes are living in a natural state.

[BChambers]

I agree with you on Blais-he used to drive down to the Syracuse, Ny Expo in the mid-90s, and he would stay with my wife and I (I was one of the guys putting on that show every year back then)-giving me not just the opportunity to pick his brain, but also first crack at all those cool flame babies he'd bring down! You're right, at the time he fed them on rodents (as did I), but I only bred flames for a couple generations, then got sidetracked by boas and Dendrobatids