Post any feeding tips (needed for WC adult)

[infernalis]

My big eastern gal.......

[bkhuff1s]

My tip would be to go with live fish, but don't put them in the water, just let them flop around. After I got my first pair of puget's, I tried to feed them for weeks, even fish in the water. I was close to giving up when I put them in the cage,with the fish flopping around the garters went nuts. I'm pretty sure I saw the male twitch a few times, because he didn't know which one to eat first.

[ConcinusMan]

So, are we talking about a WC eastern or red-sided? If so, go for live fish in the water dish like bk said. Or a small frog or salamander if you can get one. you could even cut up a large frog if need be. Also, might be good to put the food in a hide for privacy. Some snakes just won't eat when you're all in their face, making them nervous. It's just with WC snakes, sometimes you just have to find the right food. The food that they are used to. You can gradually get them to eat other foods eventually, by mixing with their regular, familiar food. In the mean time, you need to find out what their favorite food is, put it in there and give them time and privacy.

Insects and mealworms are out of the question. Even if they did eat them, it's not good for them at all. In fact, it can cause a fatal impaction.

[charles parenteau]

I know that eastern eat rodent sometime ....but I think the best way to start feeding adult especially if it wild caught ...you should star with their main diet...

When I was 12 ,I caught a huge female eastern 110cm(my biggest of all time)
I put the snake in a container with a smaller one,few minutes later beleive or not this snake was eating the other one,I tried to pull the snake out of her mouth ,she grab my thumb and ate it completly i was unable to do anything,didnt want to kill this snake.Finally she release me,I bleed for at least 2 hours and had scard for few years!!!I had 2 friend with me and they still remember it..
I kept the snake for a while and I never encounter a eastern garter like her...
I caught I mouse in my neighbour house,but the mouse alive in the vivarium,the snake jump on the mouse and eat it alive and crush it everywhere in the cage like Indigo snake do...it happen few time.When small bird knock out in the windows i give the bird to this garter and without any hesitation jump on the bird and ate it....insane

I put few red belly snake(storeria occipitomaculata o)in the cage and one by one she ate it just like they were worms!!!!!she ate a small garter snake also.
I though that it was normal for garter snake to act like this,but it never never happen to me again to experience things like that...(most of my friend still remember this snake it was over 18 years ago).
I think when garter snake reach this size it become more and more open to any food source they can overpower ....this is an old story but that make me love garter snake and honestly I will love them forever!!!

[Holly]

I think if they get big enough they would eat anything they could take down. When I was a kid we kept rabbits and we had a big snake get into a hutch and pick off a couple new babies before the mother rabbit took it down. I'm pretty sure it was a garter.

[ConcinusMan]

Frogs ,toad,worm ,fish are the only food for wild adult garter snake!!!rodent are not in their diet!...

I wouldn't quite go so far as to say that. I used to think the same thing not so long ago. I have a red stripe gravid female ordinoides, you know, the worm lovers. Now granted, she's been a very enthusiastic eater from the start and must have ate a dozen night crawlers in 10 days but after a 5 day fast, I took a frozen pinky, made a few cuts in it, then thawed it in a bag. I offered her this bloody pinky yesterday and she chowed, practically taking my finger with it, then she begged for more.

My male hypoery concinnus has also accepted pinkies, as well as silversides and night crawlers. Shannon reported to me that the anery concinnus pair I sent her, chowed down on fuzzies.

Bottom line is, when you have a wild snake that is refusing to eat, you need to offer many possible foods until you find one that it will take. A good place to start, is where the snake was found. Find food items from that area. You can always slowly wean them off of that food they take, and on to other foods. My Amy (radix) refused to eat pinky parts so I first scented them with fish, which she loves. Slowly but surely, I fed her more pinky parts. Now she chows on unscented pinky parts, no problem.

[redspot]

I was out herping in Spokane WA and herd a mouse squeeking like crazy, figuring something must have it so I checked it out. I figured it was a Gopher snake but low and behold It was Thamnophis. Sorry the pics suck as the snake was dragging the mouse away.



I also encountered a concinnus the other day that regurged a carrion rabbits foot, I should have kept that one as maybe it ate a lucky rabbits foot...and was going to drop all wierd babies.

[charles parenteau]

very nice picture its awesome!!!
My friend have over 20 years experience reproduce eastern garter snake
sirtalis sirtalis and he fed his garter exclusively with rodent for a while,long term it's not good ....he and i don't use trout jellow exclusively also...

When he start at first he was feeding with their natural diet and this for few years everything was fine.But he start feeding them with rodent because it was easy for him to provide food ...too many problems that take time to notice I mean few generation to understand what going on ....
And he dont use rodent anymore and thoses problem are gone.
Smaller litter,birth defect,as they grow up bones don't developpe as they should(will find pictures),I will ask him more infos about it.If you have only few garter snake maybe it will never happen ,but when you have over 50 garter the problem become easy to see.

we return to frogs,toad,fish,salamander,worms...
Do you own experiences ....

[Snakeknot]

A have a wild caught garter and she's a voracious eater of salamanders. ( Can't wait to get her on SOMETHING ELSE! ) But watching the show of her snatching the sal and retreating backwards into her hide is better than watching a movie! I live in the woods and sals like to hide under rotting logs.

Devon

[bkhuff1s]

I think feeding on a broad basis helps. I get salmon (from wal-mart) and cut it up to appropriate lengths, then take a couple of scopes from the reptile vitamin mix i buy, and two pinkies. This makes sure that my pair each gets a pinky, along with enough calcium and vitamins. Now I own 3.4 I'm sure I will have to increase that, but you get the general idea. Variance helps keep their diet under control. I know I couldn't live off of hot dogs. Although it would be cheaper