Its oh so quiet Shh Shh

[ConcinusMan]

wouldnt that be dangerous leaving them out like that? or is it something that happens in nature all the time and they are able to deal with it?

No it's not dangerous. Most wildlife including snakes and even large breed domestic dogs have digestive systems that are immune to irritation/illness due to toxins released by bacteria in rotten food. Doesn't bother a garter snake one bit to eat rotten fish, carrion, etc. It won't hurt them or make them sick.

It's just that we need to take handling precautions so we don't spread the bacteria or contaminate our own food. That mouse recall that happened a while back with contaminated mice didn't pose any threat to our snakes. It just posed a significant risk to their human keepers. It had the potential to make humans who handle the mice, very sick if they don't practice proper handwashing and cross contamination precautions.

For example, salmonella makes humans very sick by toxins irritating the stomach lining. We absorb the toxins and it can easily overwhelm our kidneys too. It doesn't do that to most animals. They could eat it and have no problem. It goes right through them without getting absorbed into the blood stream. If we eat it we become seriously ill because we lack the intestinal lining to guard against that. It's an evolutionary trade-off. We had to lose that ability to eat rotten food, and start cooking it, in order for our big calorie-hungry brains to get enough nutrients. That allowed our stomach's to shrink and our brains to get much bigger. It also explains why rotten flesh is so repulsive to us. But to a snake or dog it's downright appetizing.

[jwolfe152]

ok good to know i thought it would irritate them but you have changed my mind

[ConcinusMan]

They actually seem to prefer it a little rotten. Probably because dead rodents don't fight back.

[jwolfe152]

i found the picture of the san fran garter thats in the top right corner of the forum

[guidofatherof5]

Eye candy. That's all it will ever be for us in the States.

[jwolfe152]

lets just hope then can get the population back that would be awesome but doubtful considering the trac record for getting species back from endangered

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Eye candy. That's all it will ever be for us in the States.

I wouldn't moan if I were you Steve. I would happily trade being able to buy a tetra with having wild radix living in and around my house

[guidofatherof5]

I wasn't moaning Will. I was out-in-out complaining.

[Stefan-A]

lets just hope then can get the population back that would be awesome but doubtful considering the trac record for getting species back from endangered

It's doubtful, considering that they'd need to relocate most of San Francisco, down to the last brick, to restore the habitat.

[ConcinusMan]

lets just hope then can get the population back that would be awesome but doubtful considering the trac record for getting species back from endangered

The population is stable and at capacity. Lack of snakes is not the problem. It's lack of habitat. What habitat is left is fragmented and under constant threat of pollution, development, invasive species, etc. The snake is not going extinct. That's not why it's listed. There are many thousands of snakes and the population is stable and self-sustaining. The only way it's going to increase is if habitats are created/restored making room for more snakes. The snake is not actually in immediate danger of extinction but their habitat is. There's not much of it left and much of it is already unprotected private property. If the owners decide to develop it, there's not much they can do to stop it.