Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 11" checkard garter. As of today it's been a weak since he ate. I bought him last saturday and the person who got him out said he ate a pinky thursday.

I am going to buy a pinky and a rosey red. I am going to try and feed it a un scented pinky first. Then scent it if the snake doesn't show interest.

Is once a weak feeding enough?

Should I feed him inside his enclosure or a smaller container? (He is in a 10 gal aquarium.)

Are pinkies the BEST feeder? Is there any reason I should feed a rosey red instead of a pinky sometiems? Which is better nutritionaly? I've read about the drawbacks of all fish diet.

There are no pet stores close to me. I have to drive an hour to pick up feeder items. So I need to buy in bulk if more than a weakly feeding is needed.

AND my god my snake has grown! He was 7/8" when I bought it. now 11"... I'm amazed.

Nutritionally speaking, rodents are the best thing a garter snake can have. How much you feed the snake will determine how much, and how often, it will grow. When I have garters hit 11" they are usually either taking 2 pinkies a meal, and having 2 meals a week, or they eat 2 pinkies one time a week. The more you feed them, the more they grow. I suggest you buy mice in bulk, and go from there.

Try feeding it in it's enclosure, some snakes get nervous when taken out of their enclosure suddenly and placed into another enclosure.

Mike

Michael's Place

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Michael's Place has updated, better caresheets
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

Well I ended up making the trip to the pet store today.

My garter took a uncented pinky.

It looked soooo stuffed. I'm going to monitor how much it grows, And then decide if it needs to feed it sooner than 1 week to the date.

I boguht a comet (fish), and two pinkies. I put one in the fridge for the next feeding.

Where do you all buy your pinkies? They cost .99 cents at the petstore I went to. Should I buy 'em online?

My guys have done fine on one meal a week, I've just upped the meal size as they grew. With the fish, I usually like to feed lots of little ones rather than one big one. You said you put the extra pinki in the fridge, did you mean freezer (it's best to just freeze them if you want to save it)? If you buy mice online, you have to buy in bulk and shipping can be pricey, but it would probably work out to be cheaper. Since I don't have very many snakes, and I need to make weekly trips to the petstore anyway,I just get my mice there.

-Alice

I turned the fridge all the way up.

You see some of the people I live with don't know about my snake. I was trying to avoid puting the pinky in the freezer. Is it realy needed? I just asumed it'd be okay in the fridge for a weak.

I guess I'll move it the the freezer. (best to be safe)

Thanks for your replies.

Alice that pic of your garter look into the camra is AWSOME. I was taking pictures of mien today and tried my best to get it to pose.. lol.

It did give a little love to the camra though.

Buy from RodentPro.com. They have day old pinky mice available for like 17 cents each. I usually buy a couple hundred at a time, but they only last a month and a half. You'll save a lot of money by buying from them, instead of the pet store.

Mike

Michael's Place

-----
Michael's Place has updated, better caresheets
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

Gollum actually seems to be scared of his reflection in the camera lense so he does a lot of tongue flicking If you bought the pinki alive, it's more humane to just freeze it quickly. I don't think that I'd leave a dead pinki in the fridge for more than a day, maybe two. They tend to start decaying pretty fast.

-Alice

I agree that mice are the best staple. My guys really like fish too though so I usually give a meal of fish every two weeks or so. I think that at 11" my guys were getting one medium sized pinki a week or 6 small fish.

Now that my guys are around 18", I'm giving them one medium fuzzy a week or 12 fish. Once they get to fuzzy size, I prefer to give them pre-killed (for the mouse's sake). Since they don't constrict, getting the mouse down at this size can be rather drawn out.

Since I've only got a few snakes, I buy my mice weekly at a local pet store. They charge the same for pinkies through small mice, so for me it's more cost effective to increase meal size.

-Alice

Here're a couple of pictures of Gollum.