Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

Yesterday I attempted to feed my melanistic garter snake a pinkie mouse, I usually just feed it F/T nightcrawlers or earthworms but I felt that pinkies may be a little more nutritional. The snake usually just grabs the food right away, but it wouldn't take just a regular old F/T pinkie, so I rubbed a F/T nightcrawler on it and made sure to get some of the slime on it. lol this little snake loves the worms and as soon as he smelt it he looked up, so I held the pinkie in front of him and he jumped at it.

The snake is a common(eastern)garter snake born in 2003 from the Lake Erie area. It's only about 7 or 8 inches long. The pinkie was pretty big itself and I didn't think the snake could've ate it. But surely enough, he did, it took him a while though, about 10 minutes to eat the whole thing. So I gave him a basking light over his tank and left him to digest his meal in peace.

Are pinkie mice nutrionally fit as a meal? And how often should I feed him them? I'm thinking every 3 days?

Michael
Michael's Place

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http://www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

Helmz614@aol.com

I usualy feed mine the day after the lump of the meal is gone.
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Justin

I usualy feed mine the day after the lump of the meal is gone. Mice have great nutrition.
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Justin

I just switched to pinkie mice myself (from goldfish). It is a lot easier and I think has a lot more nutrition than most other foods. i feed everything weekly...it is easier for me that way to keep my charts. Twice a week is fine..it really depends on meal size. I think if the snake is less than 12 inches once a week is more than enough though...I kind of underfeed garters a little (not used to the higher metabolism since I keep mainly boids)

actualy the smaller ones should be fed more than adults. Unless you feed tiny meals to adults and big meals to babys. Garters and waters have a pretty high metabolism.
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Justin