What should I feed her and shedding Questions- Please Help!

[EasternGirl]

Reptibark works too. Try putting your hand in her enclosure and letting her come over to your hand...hold it still and let her approach you, checking you out...smelling you, and getting used to you. Do that a little bit each day...work in steps...see if she will crawl over your hand..and when she will let you, try to pet her some. After she lets you do that...try to scoop her up from underneath and hold her gently in her enclosure. Then, when she is comfortable with that...you can take her out. You may have to do each step many times until she is comfortable. This has worked well with my very skiddish and often nippy eastern wild caught female.

[Sarah E]

I used Aspen bedding, and fed her, her first Pinkie tonight! I'm so proud of her.

[EasternGirl]

Good job! Make sure not to feed her on the aspen though. If she gets any in her mouth and ingests it, it could cause a blockage.

[Sarah E]

I pick her up and hold her while she swallows her food.

[guidofatherof5]

I pick her up and hold her while she swallows her food.

Nice going snake mom.

[Sarah E]

Thanks!

How often should I feed her pinkies?

[EasternGirl]

If she is 8 inches long, she is pretty young. I would feed her a half a pinky every two days or a whole pinky every 4 days. I'd say feed her more often and less, it's better for digestion. Give her a half a pinky every 3-4 days...that should be good. I fed my Hermes half a pinky every 3 days until he was a little over a foot long...then I increased it to a whole pinky every 5 days. He doesn't usually eat all of it...sometimes he does, but sometimes he leaves a couple of bites. How big are the pinkies?

[Light of Dae]

reptile bark is good if it's the big chunks, it will not stick to food n or will be too big for her to eat it.

You really need to get the skin off her tail or else she will loose the tip of her tail. make a shed box, it doesn't need air holes, just a warm wet towel n her. leave her in there for 15mins or more then take her out n hold her with warm running water n try to get that shed off. rubbing it with a warm wet face cloth works well, if you got finger nails try picking it or use tweezers. something.

[Sarah E]

She is actually about a foot and a half now, I haven't updated my list yet. I'll feed her a pinkie every 5 days.

Thank you for help on the shedding questions! I managed to get it all off, and she's happy as can be now. Thanks again!

[EasternGirl]

FYI...since we determined your snake was an eastern...didn't we? If you want to, on your signature, you can list her as T.s.sirtalis. To understand the way we list our snakes, you would write 0.1 T.s.sirtalis, that means that you have one female eastern garter snake. You can add her name and whatever other info you want after that.