help...again

[mustang]

ok everyone gota good guestion...i started feeding mygarter pinkies and i thought ur suppost to cut em up... hes about a foot long and i fed him a whole pinky(cut up) in one sitting...was that too much? its been worrying me for a while and different sites say different things...so i came to the people whom no what thyre doing...plz tell me if i as suppost to feed him that much

[DrKate]

How big was the pinky? And how big around is your snake - when he hasn't just eaten, of course? Or, how wide across the widest part of the head, if that's easier to estimate.

My Pugets looked REALLY fat after eating 3/4 of a large pinky (each). Fat enough that I was pretty concerned and backed down to no more than 1/2 a large pinky per meal. Even at the point I thought they were going to burst after 3/4 pinky, they were still looking for more! So I wouldn't necessarily go by what your snake "tells" you he wants to eat. (Though some folks here do feed to satiation and not have problems, so that may be a species/subspecies or individual personality thing.)

But also... my boys are about a foot long, but from what I've seen it looks to me like Pugets are more slender-bodied than a lot of other garters. They're really maybe just over 1/4" across the widest part of the head, and the widest part of their body is probably not much bigger in diameter. So what a foot-long Puget can eat and what your foot-long garter can eat might be different.

For now, I'd just suggest keeping an eye on your guy to make sure he's digesting OK - producing poo and tummy getting smaller over the next couple days would be the things to watch for. And maybe don't feed him again as soon as you normally would.

[mustang]

How big was the pinky? And how big around is your snake - when he hasn't just eaten, of course? Or, how wide across the widest part of the head, if that's easier to estimate.

My Pugets looked REALLY fat after eating 3/4 of a large pinky (each). Fat enough that I was pretty concerned and backed down to no more than 1/2 a large pinky per meal. Even at the point I thought they were going to burst after 3/4 pinky, they were still looking for more! So I wouldn't necessarily go by what your snake "tells" you he wants to eat. (Though some folks here do feed to satiation and not have problems, so that may be a species/subspecies or individual personality thing.)

But also... my boys are about a foot long, but from what I've seen it looks to me like Pugets are more slender-bodied than a lot of other garters. They're really maybe just over 1/4" across the widest part of the head, and the widest part of their body is probably not much bigger in diameter. So what a foot-long Puget can eat and what your foot-long garter can eat might be different.

For now, I'd just suggest keeping an eye on your guy to make sure he's digesting OK - producing poo and tummy getting smaller over the next couple days would be the things to watch for. And maybe don't feed him again as soon as you normally would.

he is about as around as the pinkys head (at the neck) and im mostlworried about the pinkys head digesting... look at my gallyary to see the size of my snake ill put pics of the pinky on when th storm stops!

[drache]

if he's about a foot long, he really shouldn't have any problem digesting a pinky, particularly when it's been cut up - I feed pinky strips to newborns and it's been fine
at that length, mine eat them whole

[mustang]

thanks!!!whew

[DrKate]

whew

I know the feeling. After I stuffed my boys that once, I must've checked on them every 15 minutes the rest of the night to make sure they hadn't regurgitated or just flat-out exploded...

[mustang]

great he nippd at me when i picked him up later in the week ....i think he wants 2 a week since he downed the second one pretty quick even though it was cut up

[Mommy2many]

My bigger snakes, Stewie & Midnight don't even want them cut up. They like them whole. And I watched Midnight eat 4 of them the other night. She is about 2' long.

[mustang]

My bigger snakes, Stewie & Midnight don't even want them cut up. They like them whole. And I watched Midnight eat 4 of them the other night. She is about 2' long.

ya but mines barly half their size