Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was looking through my picture files and ran across these and thought some of you out there might be interested in seeing them. To the rest of you: Please do not flame me, they do this in the wild all the time so although I don't do this often I see no real problem with it. I apologize in advance if you are offended.

I took these about mid-summer this year, my brother had caught a couple of nice healthy fat garters intending to feed them to my savannah monitor (no, I did NOT give the lizard any, my brother is just a freak sometimes), but since Arthur had been refusing his rodents since before the spring breedings took place I decided to offer him one of these...as you can see it perked his appetite back up, hehe. He's been eating fine ever since

Enjoy!
~Roo

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"Hail to the King baby..." -Ash, Housewares (Bruce Campbell vs AOD)

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I should get a weaker king species like a cheap Cal King and feed it to my Eastern King. My Eastern would destroy a Cali!!

"It happens in the wild..."

Food for thought ...
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Matt from Minnesota
Cornsnake, Eastern Kingsnake, IL Bullsnake - all girls.
One Pair of cute Crested Geckos.

..a guy who breeds/raises cal kings specifically to feed his caniballistic snakes, he has quite a few diff species that do so. I may not like it but I do understand it.
~Roo
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"Hail to the King baby..." -Ash, Housewares (Bruce Campbell vs AOD)

how could you feed one snake to another?
actually I once fed 2 of my scarlet kings newborn garter snakes.
Its hard not to feel a bit guilty so I let the rest of the garters go....I would rather feed ANY snake to another than sell it or give it to some newbie with no or poor husbandry skills.....I cringe more when I go to a herp show and see all those CBB snakes crammed and exposed in small deli cups being sold like they were the next step up from a pet anole...I know we all probably went through the same learning curve but I still feel bad for the first garter snake I kept captive 40 yrs ago that died of blister disease because I had no husbandry skills.

BTW, I had 21 CBB scarlet kings this summer out of 4 clutches.
I had 2 neonates that would absolutely not eat at all..the eaters grew rapidly and when there was a significant size disparity I tried to feed the noneaters to the eaters just to test the "conventional wisdom" that scarlet kings were cannabalsitic....none would eat the smaller ones....I let the 2 go to fend for themselves but concluded that maybe this species is NOT as cannabilistic as we assume.

BTW, I had 21 CBB scarlet kings this summer out of 4 clutches.
I had 2 neonates that would absolutely not eat at all..the eaters grew rapidly and when there was a significant size disparity I tried to feed the noneaters to the eaters just to test the "conventional wisdom" that scarlet kings were cannabalsitic....none would eat the smaller ones....I let the 2 go to fend for themselves but concluded that maybe this species is NOT as cannabilistic as we assume.

Why can you feed mice to a snake without a problem? Someone may feel the same way when you feed mice, like my girlfriend did. Snakes have to eat some animal, why is one sickening and the other not?

>>I should get a weaker king species like a cheap Cal King and feed it to my Eastern King. My Eastern would destroy a Cali!!
>>
>>"It happens in the wild..."
>>
>>Food for thought ...
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>>Matt from Minnesota
>>Cornsnake, Eastern Kingsnake, IL Bullsnake - all girls.
>>One Pair of cute Crested Geckos.

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your cal king is 90% probably infected with internal parasites/worms now from the wild caught garters. dave

Have done it a few times over the last 18 years or so, and *knocks on wood* have never had a problem with that so far. The few times I have fed a WC snake to my captives I have fed obviously healthy looking ones, rejecting any that have been 'not quite right looking' or even in shed. I know that doesn't mean a damn thing but I know other herpers, and there are probably people on this forum who have done this more than I have with no problems either...
~Roo
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"Hail to the King baby..." -Ash, Housewares (Bruce Campbell vs AOD)

Wow, 18 years huh? By then you should know that reptiles are very good at hiding sickness. I have had a lot of parasite-ridden herps come through my hands without ever showing ANY symptoms, not even as much as a single runny poo.

I have to agree with the other post in that I wouldn't have been offended with these pictures if that garter had not been gravid.
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chickabowwow

well dont think it happens in the wild but iffin it did i wouldnt count the cali out,they like easterns are GETULA the kings CANNIBALS perfecting there nitch in nature as such, and im an eastern guy! but ive had enough cali's and do now as well to know for a fact evenly matched length body weight would play the major factor in that matchup not ssp,,,,,course thats just my view,,,,,,,,thomas

That wild garter snake was obviously very gravid and near term. 20 or 30 babies probably died so mom could be an appetite stimulant for a captive bred snake that just probably wasn't that hungry at the moment. Nice.

Will

It does happen in the wild, and garter snakes are a very abundant species. However I do not condone feeding gravid W/C species to C/B snakes.
Brian

>>That wild garter snake was obviously very gravid and near term. 20 or 30 babies probably died so mom could be an appetite stimulant for a captive bred snake that just probably wasn't that hungry at the moment. Nice.
>>
>>Will
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RATS
1.0 Corn snake "Warpath" (KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake "Havok" (KY locale)
1.1 Black rat snakes "Reaper and Mystique" (MO locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake "Malakai" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake "Deadpool" (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Greenish rat snake "Rogue" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Yellow rat snake "Wolverine" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Grey rat snake "Punisher" (White oak phase)(Dwight Good stock)

MILKS
0.0.1 Eastern Milk snake "Cable" (KY locale)
0.0.1 Eastern/Red milk intergrade "Omega Red" (KY locale)
Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian