Substrate

[Hollis_Steed]

My T.e. vagrans loves a vaired diet of nightcrawlers(form Walmart), silversides (from Petsmart), and cut up fuzzies F/T. I just alternate and snake seems very content.

[guidofatherof5]

My T.e. vagrans loves a vaired diet of nightcrawlers(form Walmart), silversides (from Petsmart), and cut up fuzzies F/T. I just alternate and snake seems very content.

Let's see: We give them fresh water. We cleanup their poop. We give then a warm place to be. We give them a hide or two. Health care, protection and friends to be with.
Yes, content is a good word

[Jeff B]

Doesn't matter if you have a close source in rural Michigan for pinkies, you can have a frozen batch delivered to your doorstep, doesn't get any more convenient than that. Only drawback is you have to spend a $150, and one garter snake may not justify that but if you have several then you could be set for quite awhile.

[gartermorphs]

As far as pinkies go, I live in rural rural Michigan and I'm not very close to a source for pinkies (that I know of).
you can order them offline thats were i get mine because i live wayyyyyyy out in the country to.

[guidofatherof5]

As far as pinkies go, I live in rural rural Michigan and I'm not very close to a source for pinkies (that I know of).
you can order them offline thats were i get mine because i live wayyyyyyy out in the country to.

I plan on starting a air drop garter supply business for people just like you when I win the lottery. It might help if I would play the lottery first though.

[Tyrel26]

I have a lotto story I have to share lol

a few days ago a guy was buying a few things at the store including a lotto ticket and hen he went to pay he was short on cash so he had to pass on the ticket but the clerk had already printed it and insisted he come back later to pay but the guy said no so the clerk ripped up the ticket and trashed it.......................well this may sound crazy but it true, that ticket was the winning ticket for 25 million!!!!!!!!

Poor guy will be crying for years to come!!



again sorry this is off topic but i thought you may find this interesting or something lol

[gartermorphs]

I think the more varied a garters diet is the better!

[ConcinusMan]

As far as pinkies go, I live in rural rural Michigan and I'm not very close to a source for pinkies (that I know of).
you can order them offline thats were i get mine because i live wayyyyyyy out in the country to.

Seems that most of Michigan is WAAAAyyyy out in the country.

So you go to the nearest source of live adult mice from a pet store when you can.(ready to breed at 3-4 months old) One male, one female, 1 escape proof container and lots of cheap bedding and food. Without getting into mouse husbandry details, a pair of mice can produce 10-12 pinkies every 20 days or so. Two pair of breeding mice can supply perhaps 24 (or more) pinkies every 20 days. You can do that about 3 times in a row per pair, so that's 3X24offspringX2pair = 70 or more pinkies produced in about 2 months. I don't know about you, but that would supply all 10 of my garter snakes for quite some time.

I think the more varied a garters diet is the better!

varied is good. night crawlers and silversides or other safe whole fish, in addition to a pinkie based diet would make any garter thrive.

[Spankenstyne]

I think we often sell the value of earthworms short. They're a much better food source than usually gets passed along as here, and make a great part of a varied diet.

Here's some interesting reading regarding some Venezuelan Indian tribes that use them as a food source: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.o...2/249.full.pdf

[Spankenstyne]

As for frozen fish, I'm so paranoid about thiaminase I stick to trout or salmon fillets and just cut them into worm sized strips and freeze them skin on & all. Then I'll just defrost enough for the feeding and cut into bite sized pieces to avoid food battles, and sprinkle a little multivitamin with B1 on them. I had been using the gelatin suspensions but found that I didn't need to, mine all will eat the fish with vitamins sprinkled on so it saves me from having to make the stuff.

The problems I run into with silversides is the confusion on proper ID. There are fish they commonly call silversides which are actually smelt & also silversides that aren't smelt. Pond smelt are fine but other smelt aren't... So to be safe I've avoided them so far. One of the grocers here gets in nice big cheap bags of whole small silversides & smelt (with no species labeled) but without knowing exactly what species they are I don't want to risk it. There's too much overlap with the common names