Checkered garter not eating

[Albert Clark]

Lol I meant ObsidianDragon's snake, they thought the rat pinkies were too large for their snake.

Beautiful checkereds, though

Ok. I told ObsidianDragon he should just cut up the rat pinks ( cut while frozen to avoid blood and internal organ gore). Place them in a dish and into the enclosure. That would allow for smaller, manageable pieces.

[Albert Clark]

Of course, after cutting the frozen rat pink you allow it to thaw out. (No brainer). Just thought I should add that.

[d_virginiana]

Nice females.

I think research on captive exotics should typically be weighted with first-person experience. As I said earlier, I happen to feed my garters twice a week; one rodent feeding and one more easily digested nightcrawler feeding, which is actually in line with what that research recommends. However, I've also seen many people who feed theirs weekly with great success and healthy snakes, and given that evidence I couldn't rightly say that feeding weekly is an unhealthy practice. I have also seen MANY instances just like this where someone's healthy adult snake goes a couple weeks without taking food, and (barring the emergence of a more serious underlying health issue) offering different foods and keeping temps on point has been the solution. Sometimes brumating is the solution. My point is that offering different food items is zero risk compared to the slight risk of brumation (slight in the same sense that breeding is a slight risk; a perfectly acceptable husbandry practice) and takes little to no extra time to try. So there is no reason not to drop a nightcrawler into the tank and see if the snake is interested before jumping straight to brumation.

At any rate, I will continue not to brumate my blackneck female whenever she doesn't eat for two weeks surrounding a shed because she is perfectly healthy and surprisingly large for her age. And I will continue to worry about my geriatric snake and my hyper-energetic three year old male who tend to drop weight quickly when they skip more than one week of feeding. The others fall somewhere in between when it comes to eating vs. weight loss.

[ObsidianDragon]

He was 44 grams when I last weighed him (which was a few weeks ago--I don't bother him often.) He's a little longer than 20 inches, going by his length stretched out along his enclosure (good luck measuring him any other way).

[Albert Clark]

My 2014 T.S. Concinnus 0.1 gravid. Takes down 3 rat pinks or two rat pups along with a select varied aquatic supplemented diet.

[Albert Clark]

A group photo of my Pastel T. Marcianus het granite1.2 (this group feeds a bit lighter with hairless hoppers and aquatic supplementation )
Another pic of the T.S. Concinnus 0.1

[Albert Clark]

My T.S. Infernalis female won't be producing this year. She is only 10 months old. My other female T.S. Infernalis also is too young to go this year. They both pound hairless hoppers 2, or three with supplemented aquatics.

[guidofatherof5]

Very glad to hear everyone is eating now. Great update. A couple weeks off food is not a big deal in most situation. If that is the only change in behavior I see no reason for you to be overly concerned.

[Albert Clark]

Obsidian, the best thing you can do for the health of your garters is to stay on top of your husbandry. When you become suspicious of your garters behavior, don't wait, investigate. That investigation should include triple checking the temperature zones in your enclosure, observing and listening for signs of illness. Keep the enclosure as clean as you can. Lastly, a varied diet. A rodent based diet is considered complete nutrition however a garter snake should be offered a aquatic based supplemented diet as well. F/t fish , cut up fresh fish ocean perch, tilapia , salmon, and other thiaminase deficient fish. Occasional f/t frog legs and nightcrawlers. If all he's had are rodents he should be excited about a new varied diet.