Well, I've never seen him do that...

[Seere121]

A week or so ago, my mom and I were watching TV on the couch, she was finishing up dinner (well done beef roast) and I was holding one of my garters, I think he's an eastern, caught him when I was living on Cape Cod, MA. I was keeping an eye on him, and I usually give him free reign cause he's friendly, loves being handled and never bolts anywhere. First thing he does is go right over to my mom's lap, and grabs the biggest piece of roast there is which was easily 4x as big as his head, and tries to eat it! I managed to get it away from him by substituting my finger, and he finally lost interest.

Has anyone ever had this kind of experience with their' garters? Would it be safe for him to eat it? I didn't know, so I didn't let him have it.

[drache]

that's a new one
some members her feed beef heart to their garters, but I'm pretty sure it's raw
I like your garter already - adventurous tastes
I don't know that one piece would hurt a garter - just not quite sure how exactly
food changes when cooked
I'd be most worried about spices and oils

cool garter you got - adventurous about food in any case
what does he normally eat?

[Lori P]

LOL-- what a bold garter!!! Now, he would be the one out there in the wild trying to take down a deer!!!!

I agree with Rhea... one piece probably wouldn't hurt... but I'd prefer to try raw with no additives. One of our members feeds caribou strips, so it certainly can be done...

[Seere121]

He normally eats medium to large fuzzies.
When cooking, the heat changes the protein and carbohydrate structure of the food, allowing for easier digestion. The thing is, people have theoretically evolved to eat cooked food, and I don't know if the garter's digestive system would be able to deal with the changes.
You also might be interested to know that a while back, when I was a bit short on F/T and had to feed my larger snakes fresh killed, I was taking the last adult mouse out of the tank, and putting the same garter (already fed) into it so he wouldn't get nippy with his tank mates, and he leaned over and bit the adult mouse right on its rear. Again, had to substitute my finger for the mouse to the snake, while dealing with a rather angry mouse.

[bio6464]

That snakes got an attitude...I like it!
Jerry

[anji1971]

Funny!
Maybe you need to start setting a place at the dinner table for him.

[Stefan-A]

Has anyone ever had this kind of experience with their' garters? Would it be safe for him to eat it? I didn't know, so I didn't let him have it.

Depends on how it's cooked. Salt is a big no-no, possibly some other spices as well. Ironically, we often season our food with plants' defensive chemicals.

My guess is that most of us have seen the result of a triggered feeding response in garters. There's not much they won't try to eat once that happens.

[jitami]

Too funny! Sounds like a fun snake to have around

[GartersRock]

Wow!!! Rofl!! I think I really like your snake! Whats his name??

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

It sounds like this snake is a female.....

eating large fuzzies...Super hungry.... extremely adventurous taste.... willing to tackle very large things to try and eat them... yep, that fits all of my girls descriptions very well!