How Much To Feed?

[Elliot]

i'm glad this topic came up because i have a related question. can you put a garter on a weight-loss diet? i think all of my adults are overweight and i wonder if the "big" snakes i have lost in the past didn't die of fatty liver. so i've tried to restrict the food intake. i still feed once a week, but instead of all-you-can-eat i feed a cartain number of pinkies. sounds good, right? problem is, they kill me with the "are you sure that's all there is?" behavior. so now they always act like they're starving and i can't take it.
any alternatives?

You could feed fuzzies, they are lower in fat than pinkies. Fish is also probably lower in fat than pinkies.

[garterchick]

yeah, i'll do all that, thanks for the advice, everyone

[garterchick]

what's the opinion about see food. i can find frozen bags of mixed chunks of unproscessed squid, mussel, shrimp, and crab relatively inexpensive. and it's already bite-sized, so that would be another advantage.

[GartersRock]

Shrimp has an exoskeleton and is akin to feeding insects. Don't know about the others... Don't see how those could hurt?

[ssssnakeluvr]

they aren't a normal part of their diet....not too many garters can catch squid, shrimp, mussels, and crabs...

[GartersRock]

That to.

[Garter_Gertie]

they aren't a normal part of their diet....not too many garters can catch squid, shrimp, mussels, and crabs...

Thank gods. My hankering after that stuff is way too xpensive. If P & J went after it too, I'd have to put them on diet o'catfish!

[bio6464]

Fish scraps can sometimes be gotten from processing places for free...I wouldn't mess with the seafood though.
Jerry

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

i feed babies salmon strips every other day just untill they get about 12 inches then i switch them to 2-3 times a week with 1-2 appropriatly sized rodents per feeding

[drache]

I've cut way down on feeding, since my vet's lecture on obesity being the number one causative factor of disease in captive animals
so after they've been through their first winter, once a week is the most often they'll get fed - and then not always as much as they want
babies get fed every 2-3 days - as much as they want