not goldfish again!

[drache]

yesterday I charged two separate parties with buying feeder minnows at two different petshops - both Petland Discount, but on separate landmasses
both parties returned with goldfish
now I have 20 goldfish that I guess are going to the rescue for adoption
how bad would it be to feed some of them off to some of my larger garters?
with a one time feeding, I'm not worried abour thiaminase problems, but wasn't there something else that's bad about them?
by the way
today when I went to get the minnows myself, I had to point the sales person to the right tank
she was going to give me goldfish
what's wrong with these people?

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

1 feeding pf goldfish wont do any harm, there also extremely high in fat.

[Snaky]

Of course it's always better not to feed them, but, like Reed said, if you do it once it won't cause a problem. Just don't do it on a regular bases, but I don't need to tell you that

[GarterGuy]

Have to agree with everyone else on this Rhea, I think a one time feeding will be perfectly fine for the garters. As far as anything else besides the thiaminase issue, the only thing I can think of is the possibility of passing on parasites from live fish...but again, a single feeding shouldn't pose much risks.

[Zephyr]

On the plus side, goldfish are high in carotene, which will bring out the reds in your snakes. :P

[Loren]

As far as parasites- I like to freeze feeder fish for a few weeks before I use them, to kill at least some types of parasites. I actually freeze most feeder animals including frogs and lizards.
I put feeder fish in ice cube trays of water covered with plastic wrap- one feeding per cube. Its very convinient, and for the most part, any snake that takes live anything for me, usually takes f/t as well. Right now, I only use them for scenting mice.
I actually re-use the same frozen treefrog over and over for scenting mice for my ribbon. I just rub the front half of the pinky against the frozen frog, and throw the frog right back in the freezer.