Found a baby. Identification confirmation and care?

[Invisible Snake]

Nice find, that's a cute wandering garter. I would recommend not to handle her too much for at least 2 days so that she has time to settle in to her new home and adjust with minimal stress. Live guppies are great to get a new garter snake to start eating for you, they get excited by the smell and movement of the fish.

[RissaVS]

So even though her head's smaller than a pencil eraser she could eat a whole guppie? I ended up getting silversides at the store and wasn't sure if I needed to cut them up, and into what size pieces.

[Invisible Snake]

Yes she should be able to eat a whole guppy, I recently purchased silversides at a bait store and they were too big for my young garters and I had to chop them up into tiny pieces so they could eat them.

[Selkielass]

Silversides come in a wide range of sizes- sometimes right in the same package.
I defrost the pack just enough to break apart the still frozen fish and split them up into snack sized baggies. One package. Is for quick use. The rest get tucked awày in the bottom corner of the freezer to minimize freezer burn.

Slice if bigger around than the snakes head. Ribbons are ok especially if the snake is alone, but keep the diameter a bit smaller than her head.

Slicing like this is easiest when the meat is half frozen and still solid.

[RissaVS]

It's been three days, and Elisia has defecated twice, but has not yet eaten.

She did manage to escape today, though. I had given her up for lost, as had my heartbroken daughter, when I found her hanging out in the top of the blinds! Friday the 13th isn't so unlucky after all.

Anyway, the local reptile store said to go ahead and feed her any sort of teeny fish to get her eating. They said they use goldfish and those red minnows and haven't had any problems. I also heard that you can get some minnows or guppies, put them in a deli container in her cage, and put the silverside pieces on top. Supposedly the movement will attract her and show her that the silversides are food.

What do you think?

[Invisible Snake]

Yeah give it a try if you can with guppies but if you can't find a pet store with guppies then try minnows, I would stay away from goldfish. Goldfish offer little nutritional vlaue and contain a higher parasite load than most feeder fish.

Here's a link to a youtube video demonstrating how to go about this.

Container Feeding Garter Snakes. - YouTube

The video was created by View Profile: guidofatherof5 - Garter Snake Forum

[05brandon50]

Just do you research! Think about how heartbroken your daughter would be if your young garter were to pass due to vitamin B difficiency by feeding the wrong food items. Good luck with the little thing!

[RissaVS]

Our baby vagrans has been with us for almost 10 days, and she still hasn't eaten. She still seems very active and happy, likes to explore her cage and take naps in the sun. My daughter takes her out of her habitat a lot, but she seems comfortable being handled and hasn't musked since her escape.

I've tried cutting slivers of silverside and putting them on a tupperware lid in the cage or wiggling a piece in front of her with tweezers.

I've tried getting live minnows and putting them in a tupperware with her along with some silverside slivers for a few minutes.

I've tried putting nightcrawler chunks in her cage on a tupperware lid with a live moving nightcrawler. The bits were still moving a little bit. No interest. Am I supposed to rinse off all the slime and goo that comes out when you cut them? Also my pieces were about the size of her head. Too big?

I know some of you had said it can take weeks for her to eat, but I'm still stressing out about it. Do you have suggestions about what I'm doing wrong? Should I start this as a new topic?

[Steveo]

How long have you been offering the food? I've had a few that take their sweet old time, so I leave the food in overnight. Sometimes they eat, sometimes they don't. Some just don't like me hovering around and only eat when given privacy.

[RissaVS]

I usually try to leave the food in there for a while, even overnight. All of the food seems to dry out pretty quickly here, though, especially the silversides.

The live fish I just left swimming around in her water bowl. One jumped out and dried up. The others were in there for three or four days. Every time one died, I'd take the others out and replace the water. They actually ate the silversides, so at least someone has!

Should I cover the habitat or something after I put the food in? It's hard not to want to look in there.