I feed my neonates with my own technique I call speed feeding. When they are first born, I feed them by offering food in the enclosure. I never take them out. Once they are steadily eating without any hesitation, I switch to the speed feed method. I cut up the food into pieces so that one piece will perfectly fill a little snake tummy. I quickly stick the food item in front of a baby and allow him to grab it and start eating. Once he's got a good grip, I still have a hold of the food item with the tongs and simply quickly pick up my hand and transfer the little snake, still hanging onto his food into the "swallowing" bucket. You have to do it quickly and confidently, and 99% of the time, in their eating frenzy they don't even notice. I very rapidly keep stuffing more faces and transferring them into the swallowing bucket. As soon as any in that bucket finish, I grab them and put them in the "finished" bucket. My finished bucket ued to have some water in it to rinse them off, but i don't do that anymore because being wet allows baby garter snakes to climb plastic and glass like geckos.

Doing it this way, I can get a large number of baby snakes fed VERY quickly and without a single fight, because the swallowing ones are separate from the ones who have yet to eat, or whom have finished their piece. This allows me to keep babies in larger groups, and everyone gets a fair share.

In the end, i find that this technique has an added benefit, the babies are exposed to more drama at feeding time, and become accustomed to sudden movements and are not nearly as likely to drop their food and freak out as the ones I would feed on dishes in the cages. It also helps me get them accepting varieties of food, once they learn that the tongs present the food, garters will often try things they would not try off of a dish. My adults would probably curiously bite at brocolli if I offered it to them from my tongs!!

I plan to film me doing this this coming season!!! (the speed feeding, not the offering of brocolli!!)