Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Howdy. I just read that babies usually shed their first skin 6 to 10 days after birth and then start eating, but mine shed a skin about an hour after being born and ate minnows swimming in the water bowl two days ago ( two days after birth). Is this ok? And how would you go about offering pieces of earthworms or tiny strips of fish? I just want the best for them so I'd appreciate any help.

That's normal...most of my babies shed within a day of being born. I usually use feeder guppies in a shallow dish for a while. you can use tiny pieces of fresh water fish..trout, catfish.... I usually am able to get them to take that soon after birth, but some can be finicky and only take the live fish.

All of my baby garters shed within a few hours of birth, so that's perfectly normal.

I feed all of my baby garters earthworms caught in my backyard. I found that they prefer small earthworms as opposed to big ones because they like eating things that move.

The way I do it is, I get an old tupperware with a lid. Drop in a snake and a worm, and leave them there for a couple minutes, or until the snake eats, whichever comes first. I released the ones that wouldn't eat. And the ones I have now usually eat within a few seconds of being placed in the container(unless they consumed a rather large earthworm at the previous feeding).