Overly aggressive feeders?

[Lee]

Any of your garters over aggressive feeders? When the pinkies come out they become super bold, chasing my hand alongthe tank, trying to get to my hand, striking without hopening their mouth etc. When I open the top they both come running chasing my hands/tongs/small cup that the pinkies where in. Heck the male got his 1 pink and went to hide to finish eating and the female tried to take it lol, he jumped backwards a good foot but she was all over thinking everything was food. Any suggestions what to do here or is this normal behavior....

Also, how much should I be feeding, Right now I feed them a small meal 3 times a week instead of larger meals once a week, is this ok?
Thanks..

[Stefan-A]

What species do you have?

[Lee]

T. E. Vagrans...
Of course probably the most aggressive and they are the ones that can be cannibals.. lol!

[adamanteus]

I would consider separating them at meal times.

[Lee]

I'm not worried about cannabilism, I make sure I'm watching the entire time, I'm always ready to reach in and grab the male and move him. As soon as he started back near the female I was on my way in to grab him and I make sure after the male has had his fill to keep him back so the female can eat hers. ;*O

[Elliot]

I'm not worried about cannabilism, I make sure I'm watching the entire time, I'm always ready to reach in and grab the male and move him. As soon as he started back near the female I was on my way in to grab him and I make sure after the male has had his fill to keep him back so the female can eat hers. ;*O

If you seperate them when you feed you won't have to worry about doing this then.

[adamanteus]

I wasn't thinking about cannibalism, of course you are there with them at meal times. I think they might be calmer if they didn't feel they have to compete to get the meal.

[Sid]

Lee, I too recommend sperating during feeding. It will be much easier on both you and the pair of Gartes. The snake won't be getting the stress they are going through now and you can enjoy them more.

Sid

[Lee]

Hmmm.... I got no where to feed them seperatly tbh, and its more of a pain for me because they are nippy, its less work to just watch them. Although I wonder if I fed them larger portions in seperate sides of the cage it would help? Its 5 ft long tank so it should be ok hmm....

[adamanteus]

Its 5 ft long tank so it should be ok hmm....

That's a big viv, Lee. I'm a little bit jealous!:o

[GarterGirl]

Well
One of mine is but
not about pinkies.
Nightcrawlers!
One of my snakes,
Sammy is crazy
about nightcrawlers!

[Lee]

That's a big viv, Lee. I'm a little bit jealous!:o
=) Cost me around 175-200$ to build the thing, 5 ft X 2ft X 2ft 4 inches.. Around 165ish gallons or so.. :) they are happy.

My garters love nightcrawlers to, but I can never find them outside !

[drache]

in a tank that large you just have to be quick, so that you can feed them almost at the same time or lure them away from each other
a two-fisted feeding technique

[Lee]

I think they may have calmed down, not sure what their aggressive spirt was about, I guess my feeding pattern threw them off, put them back on a more weekly style and she was back to cowering and sneaking out to get her pinkie mice...

Now for a bit random question, how much is " too much " food. My male usually gets 3 pinkies a week (only took 2 this week) and the female 6 or 7 pinkies. She has no problem digesting this much food and is always ready for more the next week. She has eaten fuzzy rats and adult frozen mice without problems, I wouldn't be suprised if she could take down a small rat.. She is around 2.5 feet probably a little over but she never holds still for an actuall measurement and the male is around 2 feet. Does this sound like an appropriate diet?
Temps remain mid 80's F in the day, cooler with window/fan on probably a bit warmer against the plexiglass when the sun shines in. Hopeing to get them to breed (they have bonded very nicely).

[drache]

my T. e. vagrans got herself real overweight grabbing food intended for her cage mates
I now take her out of the tank when I feed them
I feed her and her tank mates (2 T.s. parietalis) one peach fuzzy per week each
peach fuzzy is a size between large pinky and fuzzy
on this diet their girth seems to remain pretty constant - not too skinny, not too fat

[Stefan-A]

How big is a peach fuzzy in terms of weight or age? Never bothered to learn the terminology.

[drache]

How big is a peach fuzzy in terms of weight or age? Never bothered to learn the terminology.
don't know about age, but they're around 5g, 4cm

[Stefan-A]

That would make them about 2 weeks old (or just under), if my pet store labels their mice correctly.

[Elliot]

I think they may have calmed down, not sure what their aggressive spirt was about, I guess my feeding pattern threw them off, put them back on a more weekly style and she was back to cowering and sneaking out to get her pinkie mice...

Now for a bit random question, how much is " too much " food. My male usually gets 3 pinkies a week (only took 2 this week) and the female 6 or 7 pinkies. She has no problem digesting this much food and is always ready for more the next week. She has eaten fuzzy rats and adult frozen mice without problems, I wouldn't be suprised if she could take down a small rat.. She is around 2.5 feet probably a little over but she never holds still for an actuall measurement and the male is around 2 feet. Does this sound like an appropriate diet?
Temps remain mid 80's F in the day, cooler with window/fan on probably a bit warmer against the plexiglass when the sun shines in. Hopeing to get them to breed (they have bonded very nicely).

You might want to feed her fuzzies or hoppers, it'd probably be cheaper and easier for you.

[adamanteus]

I think Elliot's right there. One or two hoppers must be considerably cheaper than seven pinkies?

[Lee]

Actually I ordered 200 large pinkies over rodent pro and they are in my freezer so its not a big deal for me, I've fed her fuzzies and these new pinks are very good sized, it would probably take 4 fuzzies to equal her 7 pinkies, not sure on hoppers.. Probably would be cheaper if I ordered them originally but the next order won't go out until I'm nearly out of pinkies..

To me, on just a fuzzy I can't see her maintaining the girth I'd expect from a female, especially since shes so big and the temps are warm for digestion..

[Elliot]

Actually I ordered 200 large pinkies over rodent pro and they are in my freezer so its not a big deal for me, I've fed her fuzzies and these new pinks are very good sized, it would probably take 4 fuzzies to equal her 7 pinkies, not sure on hoppers.. Probably would be cheaper if I ordered them originally but the next order won't go out until I'm nearly out of pinkies..

To me, on just a fuzzy I can't see her maintaining the girth I'd expect from a female, especially since shes so big and the temps are warm for digestion..

Well you can still feed her more than one fuzzy.

[Stefan-A]

Absolutely.

And at least my male will rather eat one 5g than two 2g mice, but I guess they're all different.

[Lee]

No reaosn to feed fuzzies, not paying another 70$ to have them shipped here when I got perfectly good pinkies ;*)

[Faunaofthenorth]

hey...um i agree with everybody on the whole seperating thing...and it is not hard to do. just take one snake out and put it in a pillow case until the other snake is done feeding ...it saves space..u dont have to feed them both at the exact same time...just save a pinkie or two for the other snake once it is done feeding and then put it in the cage and carefully take out the snake that just ate. I could go into scientific detail as to why garter snakes compete and will attack eachothers food but ill save me the time of having to type it. hope i can help

[KITKAT]

I was laughing the other day because there is one sirtalis baby in the huge brood that Tigerlily had (42 total, 40 live) ... that snaps at the other babies even before anyone has food in their mouth! Just the SMELL of the food sets her off!:rolleyes:

[Howler]

Not sure how the rest of you manage in this case but I've found that snakes that you feed in the cages that they live in tend to be more aggressive around meal time than snakes that you feed outside of their tanks. Even getting a nice sized Tupperware bowl from Walmart, that you can put the snake in while it feeds is better than feeding it in the tank. It cuts down on the aggressiveness quite a bit I've learned from experience with not only garters but corns and milks as well.


--Sam

[drache]

Not sure how the rest of you manage in this case but I've found that snakes that you feed in the cages that they live in tend to be more aggressive around meal time than snakes that you feed outside of their tanks. Even getting a nice sized Tupperware bowl from Walmart, that you can put the snake in while it feeds is better than feeding it in the tank. It cuts down on the aggressiveness quite a bit I've learned from experience with not only garters but corns and milks as well.


--Sam

I found that as well

[Seere121]

When I feed my Garters, I feed them by hand. I feel that it helps the snake calm down in captivity and I can control how much the snake gets, and make sure that they don't go after each other for meals.