Emergency!

[Holly]

Canada+December=Frozen tundra and frost

Far too late in the year to find anything at all. Luckily we had a late start to the winter and I did have quite a few slugs and I had scooped some eggs as well, but the whole container went to mush.

[Holly]

Worms have arrived! 2 dozen in the styrofoam containers you get them in for fishing. They look a bit sad, they've used up most of the dirt in their little containers. How should I set them up so they last me a while? Is there anyway to gutload them?

[drache]

I've been meaning to read the worm book I got
perhaps by tomorrow I can give you useful info, but somebody else here can probably beat me to it

[ConcinusMan]

Gutload? I don't know of anything worms would live on that would be good for garters. In fact, I always fasted my worms before I fed them to the snakes, or else I just force push the gunk out of their insides first.

[guidofatherof5]

Gutload? I don't know of anything worms would live on that would be good for garters. In fact, I always fasted my worms before I fed them to the snakes, or else I just force push the gunk out of their insides first.

Keep in mind, what is in their gut can also be beneficial to the snake. The worm has already broken it down into more usable size. The calcium they need comes from the ground and the worm delivers it.

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, whatever. All the worms I ever fed them were full of rotting leaf litter. But anyway, if you're feeding them pinky's they're getting some calcium. Also fed adult concinnus whole, live (or frozen thawed) pacific tree frogs. Got calcium in them bones too. Worms weren't a staple for my adult concinnus anyway. Just a treat when I happened across a fat night crawler. Neonates got a dusting of calc. supplement on their chopped up worms every now and then. When they got a little older and stronger, they got tree frog legs occasionally. Again, them bones got calcium. Of course, I would "snap" them up a bit, making sure the leg bones were busted up good.

[drache]

I would "snap" them up a bit, making sure the leg bones were busted up good.

you probably never had a problem with this, but I thought I'd mention that it's better to leave the long bones long and let the garter figure out how to arrange them. I almost lost a snake to a bone segment lodged side-ways above the lungs. Fortunately a snake friend got it worked up and out.

[Holly]

Do you think it would be good if I switched their dirt? It looks like they've used it all up and I want to make sure they live as long as possible and are actually healthy to feed to my snake. I don't want to feed him worms void of nutrients.

[ConcinusMan]

probably. You can also keep the worms very cold (but above freezing) and they should require less food to stay alive that way. I'm wondering if it would hurt to just freeze them and thaw as needed.

[Holly]

I'm keeping them in the fridge right now.