Hellow and a few questions please.

[anji1971]

Welcome to the forum, Joy!
Once you get used to Sparky, you'll most likely be as fascinated with these little animals as the rest of us here! And this is definitely the place to come for help and info.
By the way- he's a real cute little snakie!!

[Lori P]

Welcome Joy!! You sound like such a wonderful, responsible pet family. :-) Your snake is just beautiful!!!! You'll love this forum, and you'll learn a lot. :-)

One thing you might consider is the pre-frozen feeder mice... having had rescued pet mice and rats myself, that was a hard concept for me to deal with but I also wanted my snakes to have the best nutrition for them (it's not their fault they're snakes, you know?) So I did a lot of research and found a company that talked about the health, comfort and welfare of their feeder mice, and also described the euthanasia method. It's not so hard to feed these frozen mice when you know they were bred exactly for this reason and treated humanely.

But I think if your comfort level is the fish, your snake will still be fine. Do you have an established fish tank you can keep feeder fish in? Then you could buy more at a time...

Keep us posted! :-)

[mikm]

Hey again Joy ... Looks like you found the forum without me. Good job !!! You'll find tons of stuff here ... all you could ever need. As for biting that's usually out of fear (your snake looks pretty docile) or a mistake as in a feeding response. Garters have little teeth kind of like velcro not what you would think in regards to a snake. Fearing a bite is just that ... the fear thing. Most often a garter will musk (poop) on you while trying to escape rather then bite .

Best of Luck & WELCOME

[BabelaJoy]

Hey again Joy ... Looks like you found the forum without me. Good job !!! You'll find tons of stuff here ... all you could ever need. As for biting that's usually out of fear (your snake looks pretty docile) or a mistake as in a feeding response. Garters have little teeth kind of like velcro not what you would think in regards to a snake. Fearing a bite is just that ... the fear thing. Most often a garter will musk (poop) on you while trying to escape rather then bite .

Best of Luck & WELCOME

Yeah, I had found this forum and have been reading, reading, reading.

Thanks again,

Joy

[BabelaJoy]

Welcome Joy!! You sound like such a wonderful, responsible pet family. :-) Your snake is just beautiful!!!! You'll love this forum, and you'll learn a lot. :-)

One thing you might consider is the pre-frozen feeder mice... having had rescued pet mice and rats myself, that was a hard concept for me to deal with but I also wanted my snakes to have the best nutrition for them (it's not their fault they're snakes, you know?) So I did a lot of research and found a company that talked about the health, comfort and welfare of their feeder mice, and also described the euthanasia method. It's not so hard to feed these frozen mice when you know they were bred exactly for this reason and treated humanely.

But I think if your comfort level is the fish, your snake will still be fine. Do you have an established fish tank you can keep feeder fish in? Then you could buy more at a time...

Keep us posted! :-)

Hi. Sorry, I was away and just now got to reading this, but would you be willing to share the name of the place where you get your feeder mice? Is it online, or a place local to you?

I went in to get more fish today and explained to the store guy that half the feeders were dying before I can feed the snake and he won't eat the dead ones, and what can they suggest. They suggested we try goldfish as they are hardier, but I read that there is something in the goldfish that can hurt the snake, and I was suprised that he suggested them because every snake site I have found has told me about whatever it is in the goldfish that can make the snake sick. So, he sold me something to treat my water, which is city water, and I plan to upgrade to a bigger tank in the near future, but for now we will have to just keep making all those trips to the pet shop. It kind of works out because I needed to get some toys for my chinchilla and more substrate for the snake anyway today, and I might as well admit, I love seeing all the animals there.

Thanks for the welcome!!!

Joy

[Lori P]

OOOOHHHH I never knew that "musking" was pooping!! I thought it was some kind of fear scenting. I swear, all this new knowledge won't fit in my little blonde head... :-)!!!

[ssssnakeluvr]

Welcome to the forum! definitely a red sided garter. nice looking snake too!! at that size he or she will eat a ton of rosies. you can save a bit of money by buying fresh trout and cutting it into small chunks and freezing them separately. you can thaw what you need for a feeding. once or twice a week will be fine. frozen/thawed mice are better nutritionally, but aren't necessary.

[BabelaJoy]

Welcome to the forum! definitely a red sided garter. nice looking snake too!! at that size he or she will eat a ton of rosies. you can save a bit of money by buying fresh trout and cutting it into small chunks and freezing them separately. you can thaw what you need for a feeding. once or twice a week will be fine. frozen/thawed mice are better nutritionally, but aren't necessary.

How do you think I can get her to eat fresh trout if she won't eat a dead rosie that is in her bowl? I tend to think she is used to moving food, LOL. I said to my son before, why can't she just eat a bowl of cereal, would be nice wouldn't it?

How bout my hubby had an idea of buying some of those worms that the 7-11's sell for bait, would think a garter would eat them? Is it healthy?

Thanks,
Joy

[anji1971]

How bout my hubby had an idea of buying some of those worms that the 7-11's sell for bait, would think a garter would eat them? Is it healthy?

Thanks,
Joy

If the 7-11 sells nightcrawlers for bait your snake will probably love them- you just might have to chop them up if they're too big. My snake won't eat anything but worms, and i've tried all kinds of other food, so nightcrawlers it is. Just be careful because one type of worm-think it's called red wiggler?? is not good for gartersnakes. Check before you buy, or better yet , if you don't have any chemicals used in your yard, just go out at night after a rain and grab some of those nightcrawlers- free snake food!!!!!!!

[BabelaJoy]

If the 7-11 sells nightcrawlers for bait your snake will probably love them- you just might have to chop them up if they're too big. My snake won't eat anything but worms, and i've tried all kinds of other food, so nightcrawlers it is. Just be careful because one type of worm-think it's called red wiggler?? is not good for gartersnakes. Check before you buy, or better yet , if you don't have any chemicals used in your yard, just go out at night after a rain and grab some of those nightcrawlers- free snake food!!!!!!!

I'm gonna try some. Where I live, WV, there don't seem to be worms outside that I see. It's been dry and we have mainly rocks everywhere, I think in 2.5 years since I have lived in this house I live in, we have seen 1 outside.

I also think my snake is not a baby. When we went to the pet shop today, she looks at least twice the size of the snakes they had in the garter tank at the store. They were tiny, a bit like large worms. So, maybe this garter we bought is older and more set on fish since that is what the pet shop feeds them.

I am going to try though.

Thanks.

Joy