Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my girlfried has a small (9 inch long) checkerboard albino garter snake who eats guppies normally. however, being a college student I have come on some hard times and when I found a puddle with near 300 tadpoles I immediatly went to catching them as "free food".

the snake at the time was in a large inclosure with a large pool of water. normally we just pour some guppies in and change the water out every few days. she was eating 1-2 guppies a day.

with the large pool I dumped approx. 45 tadpoles into the water. the next day I went to check to see if she had eaten any of them and there were only approx. 30 left. in the last week she has finished off all 45 plus another 20 or so. everytime I walk into the room she is swimming around the water bowl. if I go near he bowl she immediatly goes and checks it out and if there are more tadpoles she will eat 5-10 in one sitting.

can this hurt the snake? can it overeat? is it just natures way and the snake knows that the tadpoles will grow quickly and then she won't be able to eat them?

I just dont want to hurt the snake but if it is good for her I dont mind catching the tadpoles.
thanks for any help...
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1.1 ball pythons (Draco and Naga)
1.0 red tail boa (Malichi)
coming soon (well not that soon...)
?.?.? eyelash Gecko(my g/f fell in love with them)
0.0.1 schneiders skink
1.0 blood python (lestat)

sorry said the wrong lenth. also it has been 2.5 weeks now with her still eating strong, and no problems with regurgitation or anything...
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1.1 ball pythons (Draco and Naga)
1.0 red tail boa (Malichi)
coming soon (well not that soon...)
?.?.? eyelash Gecko(my g/f fell in love with them)
0.0.1 schneiders skink
1.0 blood python (lestat)

I don't think you can overfeed. I'm assuming these are relatively small tadpoles (and one very hungry snake!) . Since she hasn't regurgitated, I'd let her go for it. She'll stop when she's full.

The only potential drawback to tadpoles, and in fact any wild-caught food items, is the increased risk of parasites. Some herpers will caution against feeding WC amphibians for this reason. It's something to consider, but then again that's what they eat naturally, so an occasional meal of tadpoles or small frogs should be okay (IMO; others may disagree). Earthworms would be another no-cost food source.
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MichaelB

I think a good rule of thumb would be to let the snake eats its fill within a single feeding twice a week or so. Monitor its over all health and growth and see how it goes.