New Snake Owner.

[Sarah E]

Hello! My name is Sarah E. I'm a 16 year old who happened to find a baby Garter snake in our garage. My cat was hunting something, and upon looking I saw the end of a snake tail. I caught it, and my mother let me keep it! Now I've been on a long journey (though I've only had him for two months) of breeding guppies to feed him, keeping earth worms, and researching.

I can not stand to feed him Pinkies, because he is so small, (about 8 inches long) I'd have to cut them up. *shivers* so I'm now feeding Feeder Guppies that I'm breeding. Sadly, right now all my guppies I need for breeding, and the store doesn't have any others in to feed him.... and the babies are less than a half inch big. I'm wondering what other types of fish I can feed him? I read you can feed them Silversides? I found some frozen Silvers that I'm going to be buying, at least so he can eat until my babies are big enough to actually feed him!

I also feed him pieces of live, Nightcrawlers which he loves! Is there any other type of food I can give him that isn't mice? Thanks!

[katach]

Welcome to the forum family! The care sheet has a lot of information on food choices. Would love to see pictures of your little one too!
Garter Snake Care Sheet - Caresheets

[chris-uk]

Welcome to the forum Sarah.

As for food, you can feed small pieces of frozen (and obviously thawed) fish fillets when you have a lull in the guppy breeding. Ours eat a combination of f/t salmon and trout, and pinkies.
With the pinkies, if you cut them when they're frozen it is just like cutting a small block of ice and you get very little blood when you thaw the pieces in water. I don't know if that helps you consider pinkies again? Having said that, my wife will feed them fish but won't do the pinkies.
Other foods that people have used are things like chicken hearts and turkey gizards.

Let us know how you get on, I'm impressed at the commitment to breed guppies as snake food, we're you already breeding fish?

Do you know what sort of garter it is?

[katach]

I've fed chicken liver. Only 2 of the 6 went for it though. I also tried a fresh from the hen cooked egg white (not store bought). Some of the babies loved it mixed with night crawler chunks. Slugs work too, but may be hard to find.

[kibakiba]

I've been feeding mine eggs, mostly egg white with a little bit of the yolk slightly cooked. IMO, it's more nutritious if a little bit of yolk is added. Their poop is a little more solid when yolk is mixed in, while pure egg white is extremely watery

[katach]

I noticed that too with the eggs. It was similar to a just worm diet.

[guidofatherof5]

Nice to have you on the forum Sarah.

It would be helpful to know where(City/State) your snake is from for ID purposes.
Photos would be even better.

[PINJOHN]

Welcome Sarah from a mild and sunny Liverpool

[Sarah E]

Thanks for the welcomes! I took a few pictures of (him? Can you tell me if it's a male or female?) today. I'm going to try him out with whole frozen pinkies. What I couldn't stand, was cutting them up... though I still have a little bit of a hard time with them at all...

Also, I'm in Southern NH.

I also want to get him a buddy because I hear they sometimes like company! A local pet store has Corn snakes his size that are beautiful! Would it be safe to get a corn snake for him? Would any bacteria from the other snake harm my snake? Would the Corn snake eat my little Garter? I talked to a petco person who knows a lot about snakes, and he said I could try it out with mesh between the snakes to see how they will get along and let them get used to the taste and smell of the others? I can return this snake within 15 days of buying it if it doesn't work out.... What do you guys think?

Pictures of Lucky:

Attachment 3273
Lucky Good Picture 3.jpg
Lucky Good Picture 4.jpg
Lucky Good picture 6.jpg
Luky good picture.jpg

[kibakiba]

No, do not put a corn snake in with him. Garters (same species, size and sex) or dekay's brown snakes ( same size and sex) would be the only ones you should add. Even then, some snakes like being alone, some like having company.