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Keep cb garter snakes for king feeding?

BobS Jul 17, 2011 08:11 PM

Do any of you maintain a couple of CB Garter snakes for getting finicky Kings to eat? I know some of you have mentioned keeping fence lizards or skinks.
I figure Garter snakes are probably almost as wide spread in King territories as those lizards.

I'm not talking about feeding them to the Kings, just having ready access to shed skins and CB parasite free poop and musk for scenting.

Some of the red sided Garters and others look a bit interesting and I'm thinking maintaining a few in an extra enclosure would be far easier than dealing with loose crickets in the house and extra trips to keep supplied with them.
Also no uv requirements and I believe I've heard folks say they've gotten them to feed on hoppers?

Thanks.

Replies (27)

Jlassiter Jul 17, 2011 08:19 PM

I have one Checkered Garter I keep to scent with.....
But I have an assortment of lizards for the same thing.....Green Anoles, Brown Anoles, Med. Geckos, Blue Spiny, Ground skink, Ornate Tree and believe it or not frozen dragons.......lol

I also have some frozen hatchling kings, corns and ratsnakes in the freezer for certain scenting of feeding needs......
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

varanid Jul 17, 2011 08:48 PM

I have a pair of checkereds just as pets, but I would use them to scent in a heartbeat if needed. Garters are FUN. Mine are in a 40 breeder naturalistic viv with plants, loads of hides, climbing, etc. They're a blast
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

GerardS Jul 17, 2011 09:06 PM

I think stuff like MONGRELS would be a better choice. Your really not wasting anything. The Garters are cooland should be alive.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

"I fight knowledge with ignorance"HAHAhaha..............

BobS Jul 17, 2011 09:34 PM

Nm

CBI Jul 18, 2011 03:38 AM

LOL the OP said these snakes would be used for scenting, not actually feeding the snakes to the kings. Therefore, garters would work just fine as nothing would be harmed in the process.
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Jeremy Thompson
Captive Born Investments Inc.

GerardS Jul 18, 2011 09:58 AM

I know he said use their sheds. I think that snakes that eat snakes should be fed snakes sometimes. I just stated what would be my best candidate. I wrote that late last night and forgot that part. I really do like hybrids now no kidding.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

"I fight knowledge with ignorance"HAHAhaha..............

CBI Jul 18, 2011 11:49 AM

"I think that snakes that eat snakes should be fed snakes sometimes." - Heraldo

Hmmmm. I have over a thousand kings.... who are all "snakes that eat snakes"..... and I have never fed them one snake.... only scented.... hmmmmm. Is this necessary or just pushing some buttons..... OH WAIT STOP!!! Make sure you email me back, don't comment, because we wouldn't want to start a fight on here
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Jeremy Thompson
Captive Born Investments Inc.

GerardS Jul 18, 2011 12:32 PM

That ones not a fight. If you have a supply of feeder snakes whats wrong with feeding a snake designed to eat snakes some. They eat them in the wild why wouldn't you offer them in captivity. Its there nature. This is a good subject for here. I Have WC Brooksi. They lived and ate in the wild. I think feeding them snakes is good for them. The get more muscle and never get fat. I could go catch enough corns to feed them only snakes. However, I would rather use something that existence does nothing good for anything. Im not trying to fight so lets see where you take it.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

"I fight knowledge with ignorance"HAHAhaha..............

GerardS Jul 18, 2011 12:51 PM

I forgot to mention fresh hit raod kill snakes are a good feeder as well if you freeze them for a couple weeks.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

"I fight knowledge with ignorance"HAHAhaha..............

deepblue Jul 18, 2011 12:53 AM

how can a true snake lover possibly feed one to another snake??? No snake should be fed to another no matter what the species...there are NO "throw away" species.

GerardS Jul 18, 2011 03:13 AM

Some snakes only eat other snakes. Hybrids are a big problem that is ruining lines of different ssp. So they make perfect sense. Now the Mongrels are hybrids but of two different kings. That's why you see them here. They are two snakes that would never meet in the wild. So their only value would be to sustain a animal that eats other snakes. Its better than using real snakes.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

"I fight knowledge with ignorance"HAHAhaha..............

mbrawley Jul 18, 2011 10:55 AM

"So their only value would be to sustain a animal that eats other snakes. Its better than using real snakes."

Really?

GerardS Jul 18, 2011 11:28 AM

Email me and we can talk about it. This doesnt need to be on here. Its going good again. Email me I would love to explain.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

"I fight knowledge with ignorance"HAHAhaha..............

FoxTurtle Jul 18, 2011 10:02 PM

One could just as easily say that no true animal lover would feed a rodent to a snake.

GerardS Jul 18, 2011 10:16 PM

My friend wanted to learn different ways to breed rodents. He went on some rodent forum and ask a question to the effect of "best way to breed mice for snake food" he got like 500 hate responces in like 2 minute and was booted off in 3. It was pretty funny.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

"I fight knowledge with ignorance"HAHAhaha..............

BobS Jul 18, 2011 10:16 PM

Weird how that is though huh?
I have fed mice to snakes for years but I still feel horrible that I froze an anole for scenting.
I hate braining ft pinks too. I know they are already dead but it still bothers me.

Funny what the mind will have a problem with and not....

foxturtle Jul 19, 2011 01:18 PM

I've been catching and feeding brown anoles to snakes since I was 10, so they are just like rodents to me. I usually let the snakes do the job of killing them though if I haven't pre-frozen them.

GerardS Jul 19, 2011 01:54 PM

Up until I got married I would catch 200-300 Brown Anoles a week for all the epicrates breeders. Almost any tiny snake cannot resist an Anole.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

foxturtle Jul 19, 2011 06:41 PM

I wish I still lived in an area with anoles. Such a convenient means of dealing with problem feeders.

GerardS Jul 19, 2011 06:49 PM

Just let me know. I will put you in contact with the guy that I gave all my guys too.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

foxturtle Jul 18, 2011 07:27 PM

I produce a fair number of garter and water snakes every year for the sole purpose of feeding directly to hatchling kings. I also do the same with non-feeder corns, and rat snakes. My kings show a clear preference toward rat snakes over garter snakes.

I also collect and freeze fresh DOR snakes to use for scenting. I find scenting with snake blood/guts to work pretty well. This may be a bit gruesome for some, but it works quite well.

GerardS Jul 18, 2011 08:19 PM

It does work really well. I like to freeze them for awhile to kill off any parasites. They look and breed way better too.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

"I fight knowledge with ignorance"HAHAhaha..............

FoxTurtle Jul 18, 2011 10:14 PM

This year I've decided to start just about everything on snakes.

Most hatchling kings will take baby garter and water snakes within minutes of their first shed, where as it can take months to get some of them on to rodents using just scenting. I've found that if you can get them to imprint on to garter snakes (or whatever) first, it's a lot easier to get them to respond to scenting.

GerardS Jul 18, 2011 10:57 PM

Nick, thats cool that other people with true brooks do the same thing and we talked about it without fighting. What a refreshing change. Lets keep it going.
When do the Pinellas countys start hatching?
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

"You cant fix stupid!"

FoxTurtle Jul 19, 2011 01:11 AM

I'm expecting the first Pinellas clutch to start hatching any time between now and the end of the month. I'm incubating eggs a little cooler this year, so I'm a little fuzzy on predicting hatch dates.

BobS Jul 18, 2011 09:00 PM

Interesting that you find they have preference for Rat Snakes over Garters. I would much rather easily maintain some rat snakes for scenting purposes.
Appreciate the responses.

pyromaniac Jul 19, 2011 09:55 AM

Garter snakes are fun little things to keep, but can have feeding issues of their own. Being so tiny as babies, finding food they can eat can be a challenge. My friend Herb had a big litter of garters last fall and tried to give me some (very tempting, so cute!) but I declined, as the feeding would have involved getting the very tiniest little fish for them. I am pretty competent at raising mice, lizards and crickets, but fish is out of my area of expertise. I do now have a kiddie's play pool full of tree frog tadpoles I retrieved from my pool this spring cleaning, and I suppose the garters could eat those.

The other thought I had about hatchling snakes and getting them to start eating is be patient; I don't think any healthy young snake is going to purposely starve itself to death, and will eventually eat if the food is small enough. Even a newborn pinky is quite large for a tiny pyro. Some of my older pyros will not eat anything bigger than the diameter of their heads no matter how hungry they are. Even my pituophis prefer smaller size food, not humongous food they have to struggle to swallow.

I currently have a couple of baby pyros that just shed a few days ago, and the rest of the clutch is due to shed as the days go on, and so far the first two have not eaten their scented lizard pinks yet, but I am not too worried. When they hatched they had really big yolk reserves.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

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