Could a Red-sided Garter snake eat doves?

[guidofatherof5]

Pre-killed is always safer and more humane for all parties involved.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I feed snakes to my eggs all of the time. i buy them from a local bird farm and I have a LOT of snakes that eat them. I havent tried my garters, but if you can get your snakes to eat them, it won't hurt them. The shell is a great source of calcium and a fertilized egg is chock full of nutrients!

[RedSidedSPR]

I feed snakes to my eggs all of the time.

Learn something new every day...

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Learn something new every day...

I have tried everything else but that's the only thing they will eat! I am running out of snakes!

[RedSidedSPR]

Weird.

[ConcinusMan]

I don't think garters will eat eggs but they certainly will eat quail or dove chicks. My Big Bertha hadn't been eating very much lately until I started offering her starling chicks. Now she's pigging out again. She's even been refusing night crawlers, which she has always loved, but she's not turning down the baby birds. (frozen thawed)

[d_virginiana]

Geez, I need to find some snakes and send them up into the paneling on my house if they like starling chicks... That'd probably be a bit too big for my snakes, but I'm sure I could find a volunteer to help me with my pest problem somewhere in the woods around here....

[ConcinusMan]

I only use them if they're less than a couple of days old. I find a nest with eggs and check it every day until they hatch. Even my tiny babies can eat them. I simply freeze them and cut off bite-sized pieces for them while still frozen. I know, gross, but it doesn't bother me and they love the stuff and grow fast on it. Then of course, my larger snakes can eat them whole.

Been thinking about doing this with quail too. I have an incubator and I can buy fertile eggs or male hatchlings dirt cheap.

[RedSidedSPR]

Cool food item, but is there a reason? Does it have something other foods don't?

[ConcinusMan]

Not really. It's just as good as rodents. About the same, but depending what's available where you live, it could be much cheaper than rodents. If you are what you eat, then young birds have everything a snake would need, nutritionally. Most of my county is rather rural and so lots of people raise birds and are always advertising quail eggs, chicks, pigeon or dove culls, etc. for much cheaper than rodents. I've already stated my reasons for using starling hatchlings, plus the price is right - free.

In the summer I can get rooster chicks or ducklings for $1, quail chicks, eggs, etc. Lots more meat on that than there is on a pinky, if you don't mind cutting.