identity please

[Snakers]

Stop feeding that crap to your animals. Even "name brand" cat foods, wet and dry, aren't even particularly healthy for your cats. They're processed and contain far too many things that are unhealthy, or are straight up indigestible.

Aside from this, cat and dog food contains far too much (processed)fat in it to be used as reptile food. Your snake looks like it's stuffed with fatty build up like a sausage. I'm specifically talking about the first image. From what I understand, considering her age and captivity, that she is not gravid. There's no reason for her lower end to look as stuffed as that.

Honestly, would you feed your children cheeseburgers from McDonald's every day and say "Well, they're not dead or in the hospital so obviously what I'm doing works."?

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[Snakers]

drui9201 your reply seems somewhat aggressive are you perhaps out to impress us all with you indignation on behalf of my poor abused radix. the cat food used consists of whole pieces of fish, its true that it is surrounded by aspic jelly but this is easily removed, while i have always been satisfied that that my diet fed to my snakes was healthy, i am thinking that i should at least take into account what some experienced snake keepers are telling me. BUT JUST A THOUGHT. there have always been things accepted as fact, sometimes for generations only to be turned over at a later date. but perhaps i am being unfair, maybe you are a scientist with an extensive load of research in to transfats fattyacids and such and their affect on garter snakes OR PERHAPS YOU ARE JUST REPEATING WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD OTHER MEMBERS ALREADY SAY

Hey seeing that the cat food contains fish why don't you try f/t silversides from most pet stores.

[Stefan-A]

Hey seeing that the cat food contains fish why don't you try f/t silversides from most pet stores.

Geography.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I am going to simply say what I have to say. I personally would not feed my garters cat food. The snake does not appear overstuffed to me, it just looks well fed. I would have to guess you are feeding the whiskas purrfectly fish pouches? Have seen them before, they literally have whole cross sections of fish in them surrounded by gravy. What worries me, is what is actually soaked into that fish from that nasty gravy. Trust me, being made by whiskas, that gravy's got some gross stuff in it. And the fact remains that if you cut into the fish you can see that it has still been heavily processed. Sadly, whiskas, purina, pedigree, science diet, mostly all of those big names in dog and cat food sell garbage that is packaged as if it were canned gold. They utilize a lot of nasty by-products and fillers. If I had to feed a snake canned fish of any type, I would use plain canned fish in water... to avoid the nasty additives that you can not see merely by reading the ingredients in cat food. There are a few good books that will go into detail about how most processed dog and cat food is made. Processed cat food is not even very good for cats... which is why I advocate the raw fed diet. Not even cats are made to eat processed food... and it is shown in the sheer numbers of cats that end up with urinary tract problems, allergies, failing kidneys and livers each year. I get customers DAILY that need help to choose healthier feeding regimens for their cats or dogs because of the problems caused by processed foods. They are appalled by the price difference between the good stuff and the junk stuff, but even then, you have to be careful because prices and packaging (such as science diet) can be deceiving.

[PINJOHN]

thank you snakelovinbabe your information is very welcome and has certainly given me pause for thought, it looks like i should take another look at my regime. just as an aside my kids pointed out to me that we have not had kenzo for about six years as stated but for over ten years [ i am hopeless at remembering time spans, ask my wife] and as she was an adult when we got her she has to be twelve minimum what does this make her in human terms [age wise],
it would be tempting to say that her diet has done her no harm at all but it occurs to me that there are all ways exceptions like the people who smoke forty a day and live into their eighty's perhaps kenzo has survived in spite of her diet not because of it

regards pinjohn

[drui9201]

No, I'm not trying to impress anyone. My post was aggressive because that is down right terrible to feed to a snake or any reptile. I don't care if your snake has been alive on it for its entire life, that does not make it healthy at all.

You shouldn't need someone on this forum to give you an education on the fillers and crap by products that are in processed foods fed to cats and dogs. It's right on the ingredients list. Like I said, those foods aren't even particularly healthy for the animals they're made for, let alone a reptile.

[gartermorphs]

drui9201 i believe you are acting very irresponsible first of all Pinjohn is on here to learn more not to be yelled at. and you really need to watch your language there are children on this forum even though you may have forgotten.im personally very happy to see pinjohn willing take advice

[guidofatherof5]

Well said, Beth.

[kibakiba]

I have to agree with drui9201 on this. It's probably a lot cheaper even to feed her something like nightcrawlers or pinkies. They can be cut up if she needs something smaller. Just because she has lived for that long doesn't mean you should do it, you could be harming her and not know it. As in LONG TERM harm. feed it something nutritious, make the poor snake happier with food that's real proper snake food. Not junk. You wouldn't feed the snake hamburger just cause it'd be easier for her to swallow and because she took it would you? I doubt it, its unhealthy even for humans to eat it. Maybe you should just take the forums advice and feed her guppies, or silversides or even worms.

[guidofatherof5]

I believe PINJOHN has been very open minded to the replies he's received. We were all once just starting out in this garter snake thing and have all made our share of mistakes. I for one used to feed minnows but because of the forum and it's caring members I don't feed them anymore.
I for one don't want to throw any rocks as I live in a glass house, also.