Okay, so we all know how convenient it is to feed our animals rodents, if they'll take them, nice square meal: flesh, bone, vitamins and minerals all rolled into one easy to use package.. Okay many Garters will take young rodents in the wild if they get the opportunity, but how frequently this might occur, is questionable.
Just to play "devils advocate" here, and maybe start an interesting thread. Perhaps we should consider an animals' natural diet more thoroughly, before we embark on a feeding regime of solely (or predominantly) mice? For many larger Garter specimens, this diet may well be suitable, but what about for smaller species or individuals, or species which just don't take rodents in the wild?
How about the risk of impaction in the lower gut from excessive hair? I speak from experience when I say that this can occur, and when it does it can be fatal. (I've never seen it occur with
Thamnophis, but I don't know why they would be any different?) Could toxins build up over a long period of time in the blood/tissues from such a foreign diet? I don't know.
Here's a thing.....In the UK we had the recent outbreak of CJD (mad cow disease). For years the beef industry had been feeding cattle high protein pellets made from chickens' feet and recycled human excrement
(who knew?), this gave a high beef yield and dispensed with the need for grassy fields. All went well for who knows how long, and then sudddenly...well, the rest is history.
It's just a thought. I use rodents and will continue to do so, but maybe I'll build a worm farm and encourage frogs into my garden by digging a pond to give a bit more variety and to offer a more natural diet.
I hope I haven't offended anyone, but I think it's good to question what we read, rather than to follow blindly
. Thanks,
James.