Quote Originally Posted by d_virginiana View Post
Um... No, usually about a month without food is when you should start to worry unless they are dropping weight. I'm well aware of garters' metabolism, as is Steve. Saying that two weeks without food for an adult garter is inherently dangerous and needs immediate action is just plain incorrect.

Telling an inexperienced garter keeper to brumate without a good reason is more likely to be dangerous than helpful, when the first course of action should be making sure the temps are staying on point and offering a wider variety of food items. Nine times out of ten offering nightcrawlers or silversides (scenting with the fish usually works too if someone is wary of using fish) will solve the problem.

"Two days or even four days": Most people feed their adult garters weekly, sometimes with snacks in between. You can't seriously be suggesting that two to four days is the threshold for a healthy food intake schedule... My sixteen year old blind garter doesn't even drop weight that quickly.

My usual feeding schedule for healthy adults is a pinkie mouse feeding once a week and a small snack of more easily digested food in between. That being said, my oldest male would often hunger strike for nearly a month during mating season when he was younger with no ill effects, and my subadult female blackneck will often skip two feedings when she's nearing a shed (one before and one after the shed); she's an absolute monster of a snake for her age.
Listen, Obsidian dragon is not new to this. My points of view and suggestions to the op are well founded. People agree to disagree on numerous fronts and this is one where we are just going to have to do that. Yes, any time a garter does not eat on a two week interval there is something wrong. You shouldn't say that my suggestions to brumate a non feeding snake is dangerous. There is absolutely nothing wrong with turning off the heat and the lights on a non feeding snake who has already been two weeks into a cycle. But you know what? I don't have the desire or inclination to go back and forth on issues that are clearly written into the literature. I said what I said to give the op a remedy for his garters state of being at the moment. Nothing that I proposed is anywhere near dangerous or incorrect. I have garters that feed on rat pinks , whole f/t frog legs, cut pieces of large f/t fish. When they don't eat for two weeks , trust me , somethings wrong. I feed my adult garters two times a week and 3 times a week when they are gravid. Trust me also, a pinkie mouse for a adult garter once a week is nutritionally deficient. A pinky mouse, especially a mice pinky and not a rat pinky is only a substandard meal for a adult garter. There is virtually little to any calcium or bone development in a pinky. Come on Lora.