How Much To Feed?

[kurtnagel]

Now that Rosa (yes, my daughter finally settled on a name, instead of just "snakey") is settled and eating I am now wondering how much to feed her.

Tonight I had my daughter give her a pinky, which she took right away and then an hour later we offered another, which she quickly took. I didn't know if I should offer another?

So now I'm thinking I might need to move up to fuzzies, but I just don't know what to expect in terms of her appetite and needs. (How much, how often, etc)

Advice?

Kurt

[Lori P]

Personally, I let mine eat however much they want twice a week. I find that they regulate themselves pretty well. Since I offer fish, worms and large pinkies all at once, they can pick and choose how much and which they will eat. There is some waste with this method but there is always someone else waiting to eat what the garters didn't. :-)

I do know there can be weight problems, tho, so watch your own snake and base it on how she is doing... hope that helps a bit. :-)

[zooplan]

I do it similar to Lori.
Snake can stay a long time without, but it´s only to survive.
Best is to feed regulary like any other pet.
Babies should have a meal every second day to twice a week, adult schould be feeded once a week.
If they miss eating for a while without losing weight you don´t need to worry.

[anji1971]

I feed my adults weekly. They usually eat a good half dozen trout or tilapia strips.
When it rains, or after I water the gardens, I go out and collect a bunch of big fat nightcrawlers, and offer them those too. They usually eat two or three of the nightcrawlers, in between the normal feed.
The babies get fed every three days. I let them eat as much as they want. Two will take fish, the other is still stuck on worms.

[dekaybrown]

most of our Garter snakes eat something every other day. The babies get fed nearly every day, but smaller meals...

Yesterday the adult females all ate a pinky and 3 guppies each, and they still acted like they wanted more (Piggies)

Feeding can vary, and as long as Rosa is eating, your already doing great

[adamanteus]

I feed my adults weekly, by youngsters twice weekly. As much as they wish. They are fed on pinkies, earthworms and trout pieces.

[Garter_Gertie]

Right now I'm feeding every day, every other day, every thrid day - trying to get Jeepers to eat more. Peepers will eat every day, about an entire night crawler. But Jeepers goes too long between eating to make me happy. He's such a skinny little thing!

[GartersRock]

I feed adults weekly and babies and yearlings twice weekly. A large fuzzy for adult females and a large pink for adult males once a month. And 3 times a month as much tilapia as they will eat.

Babies get as much as they will eat of either twice a week.

But I know everyone does it different.

[crzy_kevo]

george eats 4 pieces of salmon every 3-4 days
and checkers eats 2 frogs and 2 pieces of salmon every 3-4 days

[kmreese]

I'm wondering if I'm feeding Koda too much (finally named her...thanks to you all for identifying her sex)

After 9 days of captivity she ate 4 nightcrawlers and wouldn't eat a 5th so I figured she was full. The next day I fed her and she ate 3 more, but not a 4th. Not the next day, but the day after she ate 4, but not a 5th. I waited two days and she ate 2, but I didn't offer her a 3rd. That was yesterday and I'm wondering if she's eating too much. Do they always eat until they're full and then stop when they're not hungry? Should I cut back to only once or twice a week? I'm thinking about trying every other day 1 or 2 nightcrawlers and no more than that. What do you think? I'm thinking she's not over-eating because she does stop taking them, but I don't want her to become unhealthy by eating too much (like me ).

Could it also be that since she was in the wild and hasn't been in captivity for too long that she will eat whenever she gets the chance, knowing that her next meal may not be a for few days or even weeks.

I guess I should just give her more time to acclimate to the new home and regular, abundant food supply.