Quote Originally Posted by Zephyr View Post
Just the fact that the garters eat them means they recognize them as food.
Whether or not they recognize them correctly or incorrectly, is the issue. This is something that has popped up from time to time, with garters identifying anything from substrate to silicone in the enclosure as food and ending up trying to eat them. If it wasn't dangerous, I'd feed one of my snakes Legos just to prove that point.

I've fed mine beef occasionally. Does that mean that they recognize cows as food? Of course not.

If you noticed, when garter in the video ate the wax worm, she didn't just strike at it, which would have been from a visual cue. She flicked her tongue at it a few times, opened her mouth and ate.
I noticed that you offered the worm from the forceps. Is that how you normally feed them? I also noticed that the snake was reluctant to grab it and that it only did it as you pushed the worm against the side of the mouth. In case you didn't know, that's a trick you'd use on a reluctant feeder. It's a way to provoke them into grabbing a food item.


And also, notice I said WAX WORMS on the video and in the thread; we have clear evidence of them eating waxworms but as far as other insects go we have no evidence.
Trust me, I noticed. I also noticed you yelling at 0:17 that "garter snakes eat insects".