Quote Originally Posted by ConcinnusMan View Post
I would not hesitate to feed a northwestern garter or two, to another snake under similar circumstances. In fact, when I brought my cali kings up from San Diego, they had only eaten lizards and other snakes and wouldn't eat anything else. I fed them northwestern garter snakes because that's all I could get for them to eat. You may not like it, but that's just tough. A lot of people don't like the fact that we feed rodents to our snakes but what do you tell those people that don't like it? You tell them, tough ship. Don't you? Your snake has to eat.

Now that that's all out of the way, I think that annulata has satisfactorily explained the situation.



That's better. I know it's easy for garter snake lovers to get upset about garters being used for food but that's nature. There's not a dang thing wrong with it IMO. Garters are, and always will be, an important food resource for all kinds of creatures. Getting upset about it is as illogical as getting upset about a Lion eating a zebra or a wild garter snake eating a cute little frog.

Now with the internet there really is no need for this. If you need snakes to feed to your other snakes or critters, then it's not hard at all to get corn snake or other culls from snake breeders so no, I wouldn't go out collecting garter snakes for food anymore. I did what I had to do at the time and I'm not one bit sorry about it.
I agree with some of what you said but I feel there's a big difference between nature and what goes on in the wild compared to the captive care that we provide.
There's nothing illogical about being concerned or upset when the animals we love are served up as a meal.