Foods

[happycallis]

Hey all, I ended up picking up a par of lake cuitzeo garters and lake chapala garter snake from Steve Bol at Kempton Park. He recommended smelt as a good food source. What are people's opinions as I'm finding it hard to find smelt anywhere besides the odd place online. Cheers Mat

[jwolfe152]

well here is a care sheet it has a list of safe fish and unsafe fish along with other food options Garter Snake Forum - Garter Caresheet

[happycallis]

Cheers for the link. What would be the more common fed of those. Im thinking of rainbow trout and cod as my local supermarket has it fresh.

[chris-uk]

You have good taste in garter species.

My Cuitzeos are happy eating rainbow trout. They like smelt, which I used to get in small packs from a local aquatic shop, but now buy in larger volumes online from Kiezebrink. They also like salmon fillet and pinkies. I've not tried cod, but I did give my garters hake once and that went down ok.

[gibble888]

I use smelt and like them cuz theyre whole fish and much cheaper than pinks which i now only feed twice a month.

[happycallis]

Cheers for your replys guys. I found some smelt online and Ill also try the rainbow trout and the odd pinkie to see what they like.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Try tackle shops. They usually have whole safe fish such as Trout,Eels,Perch,joey and adult Mackerel

[guidofatherof5]

Try tackle shops. They usually have whole safe fish such as Trout,Eels,Perch,joey and adult Mackerel

Not sure what conditions those are kept in before or after arriving at the bait shop.
Over here (U.S.) they are in deplorable conditions and usually carry a very heavy parasite load.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Pretty much all the deadbaits sold over here are in blast frozen and in blister packs

[guidofatherof5]

I thought you were talking live bait. Sorry.