Trout mixture

[charles parenteau]

Its a pleasure to share experience and good trick!!
what 's cool about this recipe,it change the all thing,especially is you have many fish eating snakes...
This concept is at first for large collection of snakes that need daily cares,when feeding becomes expensive that help.
each garter you have makes one more reason to try at least...

for some people its just a luxury for another this trout mixture really change theire life...hehe.

[Spankenstyne]

Although I only have a whopping 2 Thamnophis, I'm very interested in trying this out. I'll be sure to post results as well.

I'm a little confused about what to do on the supplementing end though. I see Alan adds about 4 teaspoons of vitamin powder, while here I see more specifically: 100mg of B1 + a caplet of beta carotene + a caplet of calcium and herpetolife. I just want to make sure I'm not missing any vital nutrients while at the same time not over doing the supplementing.

I'd ideally like to use the supplements I already have handy so is it a matter of just adding some extra calcium & some sort of multivitamins and not worrying too much as long as it's not excessive? I'm guessing since we're gutting and skinning/beheading the fish it's just to make up for what's now missing from the fish as a whole food source?

Sorry for the questions, I just want to make sure I'm going about this the right way.

[anji1971]

I used a trout filet that weighed in at 0.384kg (a bit under a pound) and I added 100mg of B1 and 2tsp. of RepCal.
I don't know how much fish Alan started with, as I've not seen the original recipe, but it makes sense that you'd have to adjust according to the quantity.
*my jar of RepCal gives specific amounts to use per pound of food*

[drache]

*my jar of RepCal gives specific amounts to use per pound of food*

that's good to know
Alan Francis uses 4 trout at approximately 8oz each for his recipe - just went to look
heck - here it is
Alan's Garter Snakes - Maintenance of Garter Snakes
real easy to cut that recipe in half

[Lori P]

Anji, this is toooo cool! Your snakes took to it so well. Wow, I'm going to have to get motivated one day and try this too!!!

[anji1971]

Well, half of them have taken to it so far. The others I'm still waiting on, and hoping for the same results.
The ones who like it don't seem to be able to get enough. They keep eating, and eating, and eating, and..........

[Spankenstyne]

Well I made a batch and what a mess I made with the cake gun haha. The rest was easy but making it into worm shapes will take some time & prectice. I'll use a bigger bag next time.

I thought I had liquified it well but the odd small vertebra hiding in the mix would clog the gun up and I'd get liquid trout gushing back out the top of the bag while I squeezed. Combine that with a bit of panic worrying about it all turning to jelly before I could finish and it was a sight.

I also put it straight into the freezer to gel, I think next time I may try and put it in the fridge first to jell-o up rather than just freezing and then bagging. Takes a lot of space if you go the round shape way, I had it spread out on wax papered cookie sheets.

Any tips would be great. I see that salmon & tilapia work as well, any other common store bought fish I can use?

[anji1971]

I found squeezing it out of the bag to be the hardest part as well!
My hands were killing me when I was done, but I think I may have overfilled the bag. Next time I'll break it down into smaller portions before squeezing.

[Spankenstyne]

Well the small albino checkered ate a ton of it, the slightly larger checkered didn't seem interested at all the first go around.

[anji1971]

Well, that's a good start!
Only half of my six ate at first, but they've slowly come around. Even Chili, in the middle of a shed, ditched the worms-only diet and ate some last night.
Just little Sweetpea left to go............