Haha, no no, it is not like feeding a dog tofu and beans. If somebody told me that's what they were feeding their dog, I'd have to restrain myself from slapping them. I don't even agree with feeding dogs kibble but that's a topic we won't delve into. I merely suggested filets because with a good supplement, they are a thousand times over, the better choice compared to feeder goldfish. I personally do not use filets rarely, if at all anymore, because I also advocate the feeding of whole prey items. That's why my snakes staple food are f/t silversides. In the summer, they also get blacknose dace, creek chubs, and bluegill which are deep frozen prior to being fed. In the summer frog legs also become available to me and my snakes LOVE THEM. They get rodents and nightcrawlers as well, but fish is the staple for my natricine animals, because they are, by nature, fish and amphibian eaters and rodents are not something that is usually a part of their natural diet. Some large wild garters have been observed to eat rodents but most likely because they are opportunistic predators that will take anything extra they can get.
Guppies are like popcorn, hence I don't use them, not that I can get them here anyways. We do get "tuffies" which are also commonly known as rosy red, or fathead minnows. Unfortunately rosies are also on the thiaminase list, although rumored to be a better option than goldfish simply because they supposedly contain less thiaminase (I don't know if this is true) and goldfish lack nutritional value and are the fish equivalent of cheeseburgers. They're really no good for anything to eat, from snakes to turtles, frogs or even bigger fish. The only time I use tuffies is with newborn snakes that want fish as their first meal. I encourage the snakes to eat by dropping the minnows onto the newspaper pellet and the fish flopping around really gets them going. After one or two meals of these, the snakes are ready to attack anything that flops around and smells like fish. This is how I trick them into eating things like dead silversides and even pinkies. I hold them loosely with the tongs and dance them around until one of the babies grabs it. My '09 clutch of cherry hypo banded water snakes fell for this trick:
http://www.youtube.com/user/aSnakeLovinBabe#p/u/3/16x-Ck6XcYE
