New member. Info needed.

[mustang]

welcome! feed it cut up pinkys worms and guppies

[Charis]

Hello & welcome! Very pretty garter! Hope he eats for you. ~ Charis, A.K.A Tavia (on CS.com)

[mtolypetsupply]

Hi there, and welcome! With all due respect to everyone else, I would suggest staying away from guppies and use them as a last resort if it will eat NOTHING else offered. The only snakes I have had problems with were ones that ate live (except for live earthworms) even if they were converted to mice later in life.

You can feed chopped NIGHTCRAWLERS, chopped fish filet (salmon, tilapia), and chopped pinky. Offer up chopped nightcrawler first, then if it takes that, go to the pinky or fish, with some wiggling worm parts on top. It should get the hang of it.

Please note that there is a difference between NIGHTCRAWLERS and RED WIGGLERS. Nightcrawlers are safe, but red wigglers are not. Red wigglers excrete a toxin, and will at the very least cause your snake to regurgitate it's meal, and can kill a snake. The difference between the two, the reds are smaller, and also have COLORED banding, red and yellow. Nightcrawlers have band-like ridges, but are the same greyish-pinkish through out.

Bait stores often sell both, as do the big chains, as other species like turtles can eat the reds no problem. Just ensure that you get nightcrawlers.

Best of luck with your new baby!

[reptile65]

Hello & welcome! Very pretty garter! Hope he eats for you. ~ Charis, A.K.A Tavia (on CS.com)

Thanks again for your help on CS.com!

[reptile65]

Hi there, and welcome! With all due respect to everyone else, I would suggest staying away from guppies and use them as a last resort if it will eat NOTHING else offered. The only snakes I have had problems with were ones that ate live (except for live earthworms) even if they were converted to mice later in life.

You can feed chopped NIGHTCRAWLERS, chopped fish filet (salmon, tilapia), and chopped pinky. Offer up chopped nightcrawler first, then if it takes that, go to the pinky or fish, with some wiggling worm parts on top. It should get the hang of it.

Please note that there is a difference between NIGHTCRAWLERS and RED WIGGLERS. Nightcrawlers are safe, but red wigglers are not. Red wigglers excrete a toxin, and will at the very least cause your snake to regurgitate it's meal, and can kill a snake. The difference between the two, the reds are smaller, and also have COLORED banding, red and yellow. Nightcrawlers have band-like ridges, but are the same greyish-pinkish through out.

Bait stores often sell both, as do the big chains, as other species like turtles can eat the reds no problem. Just ensure that you get nightcrawlers.

Best of luck with your new baby!

Yeah, I was reading about the red wigglers on the care sheet. Thanks for the advice!

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, reptile65

[drui9201]

You can feed it pinkies, sure; but he is much to small for a whole pinky right now. You can chop it up in to little bits. If he won't take it unscented, you can mix in worms and/or fish fillet bits, or just worms and fish alone.

Wanderings do usually take mice more readily than others, they make up a good chunk of their diet in the wild compared to other garter species.

[ConcinusMan]

I agree that is a wandering garter (vagrans) and man, he sure is long. Anyone else notice that? Yeah drui is right, he should take to pinks no problem. Just cut them up into a few pieces while they are still frozen. I fed pinks to my albino radix when she was even smaller than that guy. Chopped night crawlers, pinky parts, those would be great choices for him. If fed mostly pinkies and kept at 80-85 degrees he'll grow very fast.