food... how much is too much?

[kaneman]

I've been reading quite a bit, posting very little, now I want to ask about feeding. First off ,it took forever to ascertain whether or not our garter was eating.... tried it all.... pinkies,crickets,worms.... we put in several at a time but were never sure if or how much he ate..... now we have (him) on roseys (minnows?), and he seems to be doing fine..... but he will eat all we put in there very fast. They are probably only .75-1.25 inches long each, but he will eat 6-8 a day.... I bought 3 dozen a couple of days prior to christmas..... we've been out for two days now.... fact is... I'm on my way to get more soon as I get off here..... pretty sure it is a standard eastern variety garter,male, aprox. 16-17 inches overall. He was indeed very thin prior to starting him on the roseys..... really filling out now... like i said not sure how much he ate of the other feed we put in there..... can we just put them all in a small pond for him(large water dish) at once and let him eat his fill.... or should we continue to feed a few at a time? Thanks in advance for any help.....

[adamanteus]

Hi Kane, it sounds as though you're doing great with the snake. If he was thin previously I think you're wise to fatten him back up again, you can always reduce his food intake once you're happy with his weight.
You could supplement his diet with a few pinkies.... if you just throw them into his water bowl with the fish, he will bump into them and likely eat them while he's chasing the minnows!

[Sid]

Glad to hear he's finally eating well for you. Once mine reach the size you stated for yours, I feed them once per week

[kaneman]

thanks for the input..... my family and i are trying to make a quality enclosure for the snake... I have a 20 gal tall I plan to make available, would like to make it as natural as possible and had pondered keeping a small pond type of setup stocked with the roseys..... will overeating harm the snake or do they stop eating when they are full?

[drache]

they can easily overeat and end up with obesity issues
I had to have a talking to by my vet and have since mended my ways
one of my snakes needed surgery for an inflamed double chin

[anji1971]

What Rhea says is true, and lately I've been cutting Deejay back a bit on the salmon because her little chin was starting to grow!!
I was letting her eat as much salmon as she wanted, and sometimes she'd take almost half a dozen strips.......now I only give her 3 at a time, and if she's prowling about too much in the middle of the week, I'll throw in a couple worms for her, to keep her going. Seems to have stopped the double chin in its tracks.

Kane,once you get your garter to a good weight, then you can put it on a regular schedule, and experiment more with other foods. It won't hurt to feed it often while trying to fatten it up!