Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my Western Ribbon has not eaten for almost a month now. i normally give him rosy reds. the other night, i caught a bunch of toads for my 4 Garters. they almost never refuse food! i was feeding my Blue Garter a toad and the Ribbon came up and grabbed the other end. i wasn't expecting this to happen! i know Ribbons eat frogs, but is it okay for them to eat toads as well? i knew i was going to have a problem with both snakes trying to eat the same toad, so i made the Ribbon let go. however, when i offered him one of his own, he wouldn't eat it. i saw a couple Pickerel frogs when i was collecting toads, but i knew they were off limits. does anybody out there feed toads to their Ribbons? thanks for any help/advice!

greg

I feed only wild frogs to my Garters. I never ever feed them toads. Word of mouth and common sense says that toads could very well be poisonous to snakes. I would refrain from feeding your snakes toads. Also what is wrong with you feeding your snakes while they are together in the same cage? Again common sense tells you not to do that. All of my snakes are separated and taken out of the cage to be fed I would suggest you partake in this practice or possibly you will have big problems on your hands in the future like Snakes that are stressed out and don’t eat As well as fighting and possible deaths in your collection. I really don’t mean to sound rude if that is how I sound.
RR

Toads are a common part of garters diets, but you have to be careful, their skin secretions can be toxic....

That is what I was talking about was the skin secretions. I use the best policy in that I just don’t feed my Garters Toads. My little Garter will only take wild Tree Frogs for prey and the large one I am not sure about as I recently collected it and its already full of something so has not taken any prey yet.
RR