Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone. I've owned many different kinds of snakes over the years... Boas, Pythons, Corns, Kings, Glossys, Bulls, Gophers, etc., but never a Garter. I have my heart set on a Blue Sided baby but I'm not sure how to go about feeding it. How many fish and pieces parts of pinks do I give a baby at each feeding, and how often... and when it's an adult how many mice at a time, how big, and how often? And does anyone offer fish to them once they eat rodents, for variety?

Must seem silly my asking this after owning so many snakes, but I want to make sure I treat it right.

Thanks for any advice,
MissHisssss.

i feed nightcrawlers, fuzzies (for adult garters), and pinkies (for baby garters). newborn snakes love guppies and chopped crawler-- no goldfish. i only feed store-bought food. I feed 2 - 3 times a week. oh, and garters poo alot -- high metabolisms.
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2 tham radix
1 Chicago Tham s. semifasciatus
2 elaphe vulpina
1 gray tiger sallie
4 Aphonopelma hentzi
2 G rosea
1 Haplo minax

Same here, I feed my garters worms, crawlers, fish, newts, and for a treat small toads.

Many will frown on this practice, but I have had garters for years and never had a problem.

Regular fecal exams are a plus, especially with a diet like that. Most vets will look at poo for around $30.

Never had any luck with mice, but my snakes are healthy and keep on growing, so something must be right.

I feed the same items wild garters eat every day, so how can that be bad??

For animals that are not supposed to be social, my snakes seem to get along just fine. (within reason, a big snake and a little snake together spells one less snake to feed.)

Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey

our critters

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1.2.9 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, & Kids
0.0.2 Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garter Snakes
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - common Garter - Princess
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua"
0.1.10 Storeria occipitomaculata - Red Belly snakes
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Juvinile CB
0.1.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER" CB
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal" WC
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
1.2.0. Feline"Felix" "Kaja" & "Silver"
0.1.0. calico RAT
2.4.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

I personally have all my garters on mice, eating fuzzies to adults depending on the snake, one of my garters eat twice as much as any of the ball pythons, but I don't have any problems with feeding more natural prey items like Wayne does. For me it's mainly just easier and then I don't worry about parasites or bacterial pathogens and nutritional deficiency, but with the varied diet like Wayne suggested nutritional deficiency shouldn't be an issue either. Just ask yourself, do I want it to be easy and worry free or do I want it to be more natural, interesting and fun to feed? it's a matter of personal preference. I had a garter that I fed live minnows, frogs and toads that I would catch and that certainly was way more entertaining to watch than feeding dead mice. I believe you were also asking about how often to feed, for babies start with guppies every couple days, then small portions of mouse parts scented by rubbing on live guppie, start with a leg or tail, then after several feeding move up to quarter pinkie, then after several more feeding then half pinke, then whole, ect. then as you increase the amount decrease the frequency to the point of half grown snakes eating a fuzzie or small every 5 days or so, and then adult garters only once a week if on rodents, maybe slightly more frequent feedings if you choose to use other prey items depending. Garters definately have a higher metabolism than other snakes, way way higher than a ball python. Hope that helps and there are no silly questions and nobody is an expert, I learn new stuff obout repliles everyday, thats why we come here, even after 30 plus years, cudos to you for doing your homework and researching before getting involved and making a commitment, rather than assuming you already know everything there is to know about snakes.
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You got your regius's to the wall, man!
1.0 pastel Python regius
0.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
0.2 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.1 Ambystoma tigrinum
1.1 Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.1 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
1.1 heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus

Ditto!

Regards,
Wayne
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1.2.9 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, & Kids
0.0.2 Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garter Snakes
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - common Garter - Princess
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua"
0.1.10 Storeria occipitomaculata - Red Belly snakes
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Juvinile CB
0.1.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER" CB
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal" WC
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
1.2.0. Feline"Felix" "Kaja" & "Silver"
0.1.0. calico RAT
2.4.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

Thanks ya all for the great replies. I will probably try to go the mouse route once I change it over from fish. I wish I could just go out and find a lot of the other things that they eat but I live in the deserts of NM. I do have a few more questions though. For one... why not goldfish? And also, how many guppies should I feed a baby at one setting (before it's put on mice).... and how many fuzzies at a feeding for an adult (on average)? I don't want to under or over feed them. I'd feed, say, a corn hatchling, one pinkie.... but guppies are a lot smaller.

Thanks again and I'm glad you're out there to chat with,
Michelle

Thanks ya all for the great replies. I will probably try to go the mouse route once I change it over from fish. I wish I could just go out and find a lot of the other things that they eat but I live in the deserts of NM. I do have a few more questions though. For one... why not goldfish? And also, how many guppies should I feed a baby at one setting (before it's put on mice).... and how many fuzzies at a feeding for an adult (on average)? I don't want to under or over feed them. I'd feed, say, a corn hatchling, one pinkie.... but guppies are a lot smaller.

First answer: goldfish can carry a lot of disease and parasites.
The answer to a lot of these questions in my oppinion are use your best judgement and study your snakes behaviour, they will tell you a lot. Past that some guidlines that I use are offer the babies little guppies untill they don't show interest or they start to look plump which ever comes first and in my experience it's usually the first, they will loose interest, that is they won't inhale immediately when you put a guppy in front of their face. So, usually they will increase the number they will take untill you increase the size, once they can eat a couple adult guppies or small rosies, I would say you could try introducing a mouse leg or tail, try rubbing it with a live fish, I have found they will take more eagerly if live fish scent is rubbed rather than a F/T fish scent. But really you want to switch to rodent ASAP so minimize the imprint of eating only fish. How much you feed an adult varies by size, males usually are smaller, mine eat fuzzie-small mice, females medium-large depending on girth. Really the mouse size to girth (no more than 1.5)of the snake rule for other snakes still applies but maybe should be slightly less, closer to 1x, the difference is they can also eat a couple small portion rodents rather than just one larger meal per feeding like corns, and also due to higher metabolism eat slightly more frequently on agerage. My corns never had any interest in a second mouse so I don't even waste my time offering, but the female garters would probably keep inhaling mice untill they pop, so I have to restict them a bit. My female snow ate 4 in a row, which was kinda cool to see when she was still growing, but I decided that was my bad and not in her best interest, so now I give her only one and once in a while a second mouse that is a leftover because one of the other snakes refused, she's kind of the snake room garbage disposal Hope this helps give you some guidlines, but personally I don't follow any rules, I try to study the behavior and interpret each individual snake, because they are all unique and each new day is a new dynamic situation in their life.
Jeff
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You got your regius's to the wall, man!
1.0 pastel Python regius
0.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
0.2 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.1 Ambystoma tigrinum
1.1 Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.1 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
1.1 heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus

goldfish contain thiaminase....causes a lot of problems with growing snakes....theres a care sheet explaining all this on thamnophis.com

yes while that is true, that is not a reason to not feed goldfish, thiamin deficiency would only be a problem with a diet strictly of goldfish. I would trust a variety of wild caught live prey to be parasite free before I would petstore goldfish kept in horrible cramped and filthy conditions.
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You got your regius's to the wall, man!
1.0 pastel Python regius
0.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
0.2 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.1 Ambystoma tigrinum
1.1 Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.1 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
1.1 heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus

I have all my garters on mice. Mainly to keep things simple for me, and minimize the potential for parasite issues. One thing to consider when contemplating a mouse diet is species. Some species of garter take more readily to a rodent diet than others.

I keep T.elegans, T. sirtalis, and T. cyrtopsis. The T. elegans were the easiest to switch. The guy I caught locally on the California central coast, took a brained pinkie as a first meal as a neonate, and never required braining or scenting after that. My T. elegans from northern California required frog scenting for the first feeding. My T. sirtalis required frog scenting for about 6 months. My T. cyrtopsis only took fish for the first year, I was eventually able to convert him by cutting off piecies of the fish and sticking them in the mouth of a pre-killed pinkie. Now all are very enthusiastic mouse eaters (ripping their mice from the tongs or leaping out of the tank in anticipation if I'm not quick enough).

I feed all my guys weekly. Garters fed mice should only be given dead animals since they don't constrict. A live mouse would be dangerous and if feeding pinks or fuzzies it's cruel to the mouse (unless you're feeding pinks or fuzzies to a large garter it takes forever for them to get them down / kill them).

If you go with a captive bred snake, the breeder should be able to tell you how to go about switching them over and give you an idea of how difficult it will be. If you go wild caught, try to get a neonate (you can get an idea of how difficult they'll be to switch over by researching their diet in the wild). Older wild garter snakes will often home in on a particular prey item and can be very difficult to switch over.

I know what you mean, aliceinwl, about some species taking more readily to a rodent diet than others. But in my case it was a Glossy. Some do right off, some don't, and some never switch. With mine.... I got him switched over by scenting with lizards when he was young and he did great until he was big enough to eat fuzzies and I offered him one. Well, he must have hated it because he never touched another mouse no matter how it was presented to him. With and without hair, brained, scented, live, dead, pieces parts of lizard protruding from pinkies faces.... I even served one with a beer, but he still refused. (Only kidding about the beer). Anyway.... he kept up his strike for what seemed like forever.... so I finally gave in. I've seen a lot of Glossy's in pet stores that where skin and bone because the owners refused to give in, and I didn't want to loose mine. I've had him for almost 7 years now and he's been worth the extra effort to collect and buy lizards. Thank God he eats them thawed.

Thanks boxienuts for you excellent feeding instructions. I know what you mean about rules, but I didn't want to make the mistake of offering too many and have it pig out and get sick or something. Oh and.... I had a garbage disposal snake too. He was a gorgeous super huge pitch black King that I used to give extra's too whenever my other snakes didn't eat.... till I gave it one from a Rosy Boa that ended up being sick, and it made my King sick as well and I lost him. The Vet and I never did find out what they had either.

I'd heard about not feeding goldfish but couldn't remember the reason for not doing so. Thanks for the explanations everyone, and the link. Ya all have been so very helpful with all my questions. I love the photo's of your treasures too. Keep em coming and I'll be visiting this forum often.

MissHisssss.