Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi i'm new to garter snakes, i was mainly into lizards but this is my fist pet snake. btw it was the cheapest pet i ever got!. anyway he or she is about 2ft long black with 3 yellow striped very tame never offer to bite, i just bought pestiside free earthworms and i put 1 that was cut in half in his bowl but he hasnt touch it yet, i caught this snake 2days ago. How do you get your wild caught snake to eat? thanks for everyone time reading this post, i hope to make more posts in the future to make sure i get the right info on keeping a healthy garter snake.
Le

It depends on the species of garter snake. Get yourself a field guide and ID the species.
Some are stricktly amphibian feeders, but most will eat small feeder fish.
Put a dozen fish or so into a shallow bowl or deli cup, and chances are the snake will eat.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

michael j. fox loved his frogs, try a bull frog

We need to know what species you have. If you do not know try to post a pic and give a geographical location where it was caught.

A few species of Garter Snakes specialize in earthworms. Ribbon Snakes do not eat them so maybe yours is a Ribbon since it did not touch the worms you offered. I would stay away from amphibians as they increase the threat of parasite build up in a captive snake. Your snake probably has a degree of internal parasites already so adding more to a captive snake may have long term ill effects. Wild snakes seem to cope better than captive ones.

Try fish to get your snake started. Place a few in a shallow water bowl. Once established you will want to convert your pet over to rodents. Most species of Garters will eat thawed rodents in captivity but a few species are more difficult to convert and there are a few that will not.

Try the fish first and post a geographical location or pic if you can. A pic without a geographical location is not that valuable in itself. Once we identify the species we can get more specific about diet and husbandry
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Randy Hallman

here's a pic of him, i found him in iowa, i'm in the midwest.
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