Feeding Garter chopped up hoppers?

[Talon]

Hello there, recently the nearby pet store in this ghost of a town is going out of business and I decided to make an unusual purchase. Usually the store has fuzzies, which I have been able to feed to my adult garters, and chop up effectively for the younger ones to eat in parts and pieces.

However, this time the pet store did not have any. What she had was hoppers! I was hesitant to make a purchase, because none of my snakes are large enough to eat one whole, thus I would have to do some slice and dicing..however when she told me they were going for the discounted prize of .50 cents each and since the nearest pet store is a hour away..I decided to get some(20 of them) since I figured this would be plenty to last me until I can head over to the next town.

Any way..the issue that I'm concerned about is the fur. The fuzzies and pinkies did not pose such a problem, however even if I chop up these hoppers I fear that my two male adults, my one male juvenile, and especially the 3 month male and female pair will not be able to pass the large amount of fur these things have. The last thing I want is my snakes to suffer and die of any sort of blockage! Hoppers are not a reasonable part of their diets at their size after all, and I fear even if I chop them up the fur is just too thick and just too copious.

What can I do? Should I be worried or should I try to skin the chopped up hoppers before feeding it to them?... Or should I stick to nightcrawlers?

Thankyou!

[guidofatherof5]

I would say skin the hopper before you chop it up. A good sharp knife or pair of scissors should do nicely.

[d_virginiana]

Agree with Steve. The main reason to feed pinkies instead of fuzzies even for garters large enough to take fuzzies is that the hair can cause impaction.

[MiddletonMouse]

The idea that hair causes impaction is something I've seen a few times, I was wondering if there was anything to back this up or is it mainly anecdotal evidence at this time? Don't get me wrong I feed pinkies myself but it'd be good to have some references to show others.

[d_virginiana]

The idea that it can cause impaction is anecdotal, but knowledge of what garters eat in the wild could also be used as an argument against it. In the wild, they eat primarily furless prey (fish/worms/frogs) and maybe the occasional newborn mammal. Many don't ever get big enough to eat something the size of a hopper, especially if it was alive and struggling. Given this, there's no reason to think their systems were built to handle large amounts of fur.

Basically, even if there's only a slight risk of impaction from fur, I'd still feel safer feeding pinkies and knowing that there's a zero risk of impaction from fur.

[MiddletonMouse]

The idea that it can cause impaction is anecdotal, but knowledge of what garters eat in the wild could also be used as an argument against it. In the wild, they eat primarily furless prey (fish/worms/frogs) and maybe the occasional newborn mammal. Many don't ever get big enough to eat something the size of a hopper, especially if it was alive and struggling. Given this, there's no reason to think their systems were built to handle large amounts of fur.

Basically, even if there's only a slight risk of impaction from fur, I'd still feel safer feeding pinkies and knowing that there's a zero risk of impaction from fur.

I think it's definitely right to er on the side of caution. Thank you for the information.