Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok..So I tried feeding Arwen a worm, today, and she doesn't appear to be interested. Is there any particular way I need to feed them to her. I put it in a cap to keep it from crawling out, onto the substrate. I made sure it was small enough for her to eat, but big enough to look like a nice meal. I also tore it into 3 pieces so it wouldn't keep crawling out and that perhaps Arwen might be a bit more interested in it. Still, no luck. Maybe she's just not hungry enough? Are there garter snakes that don't eat worms? As far as I know, she hasn't had worms, before. Any ideas?

I think you said your snake was pretty small...Right? I remember reading that worms are really not nutritionally complete enough for young, growing garters. Older garters will sometimes eat a variety of things, including worms, but baby garters will not do well on them in general. Again, I read this in a book about garters, so anyone with experience that tells them otherwise can feel free to correct me here. I have raised my two little ones almost exclusively on fish, swithcing them over to pinkies when they were ready to do so. I would say if your snake is accepting fish you might want to stick with that for awhile. Good luck. Duffy

That would explain it. Yeah, she's about 1 1/2 feet long or so and about..1/3 of an inch wide. I'll get her some more fish, tomorrow, then. I'll wait till she's a bit bigger for the worms, then.

She might not have been hungry at the time....was it a nightcrawler or smaller worm? I have had most of my babies tear into worms, even nightcrawlers at a small size. I don't feed them exclusively, but I like to give them a variety. I also scent pinkies with worms too, some of them take to them faster this way than scenting with fish.

Its been my experience baby garters love worms, and prefer it over all other food sources. she just might not have been hungry. I dont know if i consider a garter over a foot a "baby", but rather a juvenile. =) I'm not sure why, but I have one garter that just will not even look once at a store bought worm, but when i dig some up he goes after it like flies on [bleep]. that may also be your case. What kind of setup do you have for your garter?

Just wanna make sure - any chance you have a ribbon snake and not a garter? One thing I've noticed about ribbons is that they tend not to like earthworms. Just another possibility.
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MichaelB

As to her set up, I have a large water bowl, a half a cocounut shell to hid in, a small log to hide in, a branch to climb on, a stone to sun on, a humidity gauge, temp gauge, substrate, and a lamp so she gets enough sun. My house is kinda dark. I bought her some fish (rosie minnows) today and she has eatten 5 and might be going after the other 3. I have a set up ready for the fish that don't get eatten, but she just might get all of them. There is a good chance that she might be a ribbon snake. Petco said she was a garter, but I dunno. I was trying a few days ago to figure that out or not, but didn't have much luck. Oh...Make that 6 fish she's eatten. Anyway, if I remember correctly, ribbons have brownish scales and 3 yellow stripes. She has black scales, 3 yellow stripes, but no little dots along these stripes. I've seen pictures of garters with the little blotches along the stripes and she doesn't have a one. That mean she's a ribbon snake? Any help on that would be awesome Wow..She's still hunting those fish, but she missed. I looked at the fish she'd be eatting if she moved up a step and they're definately too big for her, right now. She got ahold of a large rosie and that was definately the best size fish for her. Left a nice lump in her tummy I think my problem with feeding her was that I was feeding her every other day. hehehe..Thought she was a baby so I though she needed to eat more. Oh well. Got that settled, now and will feed her every 3 days or so. Thanks for all the tips

Got any pics?? That would help with the id of the snake...

Well, I have one picture of her, but it won't do you much good. It's too blurry. Give me until tomorrow and I'll get a picture of her for you. She just ate, so I don't really want to pick her up. Still can't believe she ended up eatting all 8 fish. If you want to see the picture of her that I do have, go to http://www.cyberpawz.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=403 here are pictures of my rats on there, too. Sorry it's so bright and all. My camera isn't the best, either.

Well, she was actually calm enough for a few photos. They're all on that website if you'd care to look. You can really see her banding well.

She looks like a ribbon snake...not clear enough to get the exact species, but I'd day a ribbon. They don't like to eat worms, but a variety of fish will do fine. Nice looking snake too!!

That would explain a lot. Besides rosies and goldfish (which are a bit too big, at the moment), is there anything else I can feed her, safetly?

I agree, it looks like a ribbon but hard to be sure from the pics. Nice snake. Try this: find the lateral stripes (on the sides), and count the scale rows that those stripes are on. If they're on the 2nd and 3rd scale rows (counting up fron the edge of the larger ventral scales), it's probably a garter. If they're on the 3rd and 4th rows, it's probably a ribbon.

Other possible food items would include small amphibians (frogs, toads, tadpoles, maybe salamanders), but many garter/ribbon keepers will advise against them due to the risk of parasites.
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MichaelB

Thankies I think she's a very cool snake. She's the first one I've ever kept, but there used to be tons of these guys outside and I'd catch them when I was a kid. Course, now we have cats in our yard and they've been hunted down I told my dad not to feed that cats. Welp, I counted and her stripes start on the 3rd. Go fig. Looks like a garter, acts like a ribbon. She's just a silly snake. I fed her, when I first got her, and she didn't like me watching her catch fish. She's over that, now, but it's so funny how she'll sit in her house and peeeeek out at me all day. Kinda cute. She's never bit at me, but doesn't initially like being picked up. Once she's in my hands, she'll slither around a bit, then be fine. If I knew snakes were this cool and easy to take care of, I would have gotten one ages ago.

I have close to 30 Garters of various types as well as a Ribbon. Most will do well on rodents. You might want to try feeding it a thawed pinkie. If the snake doesn't eat it try scenting the pinkie by rubbing it with a feeder fish. Most garters will convert over to a rodent diet with little or no effort. Rodents provide a more nutritious diet and they do not carry the risk of parasites that fish and amphibians do. My Ribbon eats unscented pinkies and looks very healthy. If rodents are not an option for you (I notice you keep rodents so may consider them pets) then stick with a fish diet. Some keepers who use fish freeze them for a minimum of 24 hours and then thaw them. This is done to kill internal parasites.

Yeah, I prefer not to feed mice if possible. Wouldn't mind so much if I could buy them already frozen, but she's still a bit too small for pinkies, yet. I might try that with the fish, though. They still seem to like the fist, even if they're not moving around, much?

Your snake sounds large enough for pinkies and you can get frozen pinkies in small quantities at the larger pet stores or through the internet. If the snake can eat goldfish or rosies then a pinkie mouse shouldn't be a problem. They are cheaper over the internet but shipping can be pricey so it may not be worth it for 1 snake. I buy frozen rodents in amounts to last 4 to 6 months but I have close to 60 snakes. Some keepers recomend useing a vitamin supplement when useing fish as opposed to rodents as well. Either way just monitor the snake, if it is healthy and showing growth then "it aint broke."

Well, she's just eatting the baby rosies at the moment.Goldfish, even the small ones, are still too big for her, but she's growing bigger everyday, it seems. Mainly around the waistline I'll do some more research on the frozen mice. Thanks