ribbon feeding

[aquamentus_11]

For all you ribbon snake keepers, a few questions:

1) Do they calm down?

2) Are they finicky eaters (compared to garters)?

3) How do they do when housed with garters? How do the garters do?

4) How often do they need to be fed?

[guidofatherof5]

For all you ribbon snake keepers, a few questions:

1) Do they calm down?

2) Are they finicky eaters (compared to garters)?

3) How do they do when housed with garters? How do the garters do?

4) How often do they need to be fed?

#1 Yes and no.

#2 Yes and no.

#3 Seems to do fine. Seems to do fine.

#4 Same as other garter snakes. Young more then adults and adults less then young.
Sorry for the vagueness of my answers

Being a 1 ribbon owner I by no means consider myself as experienced.

[aquamentus_11]

haha well you're one up on me

[aquamentus_11]

i'm fairly certain that what i was looking at today was a female, but it's a young snake and their tails are longer then garters'. it became fairly thin right after the vent without any bulging or thickening. does anyone have a picture of a female vs a male ribbon vent and tail?

[infernalis]

For all you ribbon snake keepers, a few questions:

1) Do they calm down?

2) Are they finicky eaters (compared to garters)?

3) How do they do when housed with garters? How do the garters do?

4) How often do they need to be fed?

The ribbons I kept were flighty, they never calmed down.

they were finicky, mine would only eat live fish. I gave them some guppies every other day, sometimes skipping a day.

and I never tried to keep them with my other garters...

[aquamentus_11]

hmmm the one i'm looking at seems very calm already. live fish every other day would be a problem though. filet with some Ca2+ I can handle or f/t.

[EasternGirl]

Yeah...I don't know...I always thought they ate live fish...ribbons are basically more aquatic versions of garters from what I understand. In the wild they tend to live near the water and hunt live fish...I believe. I don't know how one would do with fish fillet.

[EasternGirl]

Okay...I just did a search on the internet and found a girl talking about owning ribbon snakes and feeding her snakes earthworms, guppies, and platies...and she says you can also feed fresh fish fillet if you can get them to eat it. She also mentioned breeding your own guppies and platies to feed to the snake...which I have heard other people mention. She mentions feeding pinkies too...but said her ribbons would not eat the pinkies. She did talk about scenting however...she said she may try scenting the pinkies with fish or worms in the future. Hope this helps.

[guidofatherof5]

My Shyblue (T. p. orarius - Gulf Coast Ribbon Snake) readily takes unscented pinkies after some training with fish-scented ones.

[aquamentus_11]

yeah, i'm hoping it'll be ok with filet and pinkies like steve says. if i can't get her on filet, i'd have to give her back though or find another home: i can't sustain a population of live fish with my current lifestyle. she's eating crickets now though, so i'd think she'd be happy to get anything else at this point....