Advice for Feeding a Ribbon

[DecapitatedStacie]

Hi all,

I've had my garter snake for about 5 months, he was either a baby or a "teen" when I bought him, about 12 inches.

For the past 2 months, I've been feeding him about 5-7 minnows/goldfish per week.

My questions are...

1) do I need to worry about over-feeding him?
2) at what point in age (or length, easier to measure) do I change his eating habits?

Thank you!

[adamanteus]

Hi Carolyn, and welcome to the forum.
I think it might be a good idea if you change his diet straight away. Goldfish are toxic and can make your snake ill, or even kill it over a period of time. Have a read through this-
http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets...C_.26_GOLDFISH
Your snake needs a more varied diet, ideally you should use 'safe' fish (trout or salmon, cut into bite sized portions is very good), nightcrawlers and pinky mice, again cut into managable sizes.

[Lori P]

Welcome Carolyn!! James is right on with his advice. And send pics of your little guy, we love pics!!! :-)

[anji1971]

Hello and welcome!
You must put up pics as soon as possible!

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard, Carolyn.

[Snaky]

Welcome to the forum and have fun here

[ssssnakeluvr]

welcome to the forum! As james said, stop feeding goldfish....trout and salmon are good for them.

[Purplegrrl666]

Well I mostly feed him minnows, trout and salmon are not exactly within my budget.

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

for me its cheaper i buy a pound and 1/6 of salmon for $8 then cut it up into 250 minnows sized pieces, each being 3 cents rather than the 10 cents minnows are each

Well I mostly feed him minnows, trout and salmon are not exactly within my budget.

[bulrush]

Someone replied to me today on this same forum, that minnows should not be fed to snakes because they contain some thiaminase. Are minnows ok or not?

It was in this thread:
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husb...-question.html