OK, since there's at least mild interest out there, here's a thread specifically for scientific information and debate on The Thiaminase Issue.

The rules are that anything posted here has to be real scientific information, with a reference. I think it's fair to say that accounts of your own personal experiences are OK too, but not "I know this guy who said..." stories.

As far as an overall goal for the thread, I still think that there are two critical unanswered questions of practical importance:

1) What is the garter snake's dietary thiamine requirement - how much is necessary to prevent thiamine deficiency symptoms? And also for completeness, at what level does thiamine supplementation become toxic?

2) How much thiamine does a garter snake actually obtain (that is, amount initially present minus amount destroyed by thiaminase on the way from the mouth to the intestine) from a goldfish/rosy red/shiner fed live? And how much variability is there in the thiamine/thiaminase content of commercial feeder species?