Garter snake food - fish questions.

[adamanteus]

Nutritionally speaking I guess it's the same. I was just thinking dead/frozen/thawed is more convenient and less stressful for the feeder. In the UK it's illegal to feed live rodents.

[Cazador]

Lee,

One could make an arguement that they're more nutritional if they lack tapeworms, and live rodents are a major source of tapeworm. If you freeze them for at least three days, it's said to take care of the majority of parasites. Even though you're feeding babies, the larvae migrate at random through the mother, so it's not safe to assume they're not parasitized.

Rick

[Stefan-A]

Could you and your S/O be convinced to keep frozen rodents in your freezer? After all, it's just meat.

[adamanteus]

Are there no laws in the US concerning the use of live rodents as food items? In the UK it is an absolute no no. I guess everybody does it occasionally, say to get a reluctant feeder started, but I can't see the point in using live animals if you don't need to. It seems to me more inconvenient...what if the snake isn't hungry? Then you're stuck with a little rat that needs it's Mama!

[Lee]

Are there no laws in the US concerning the use of live rodents as food items? In the UK it is an absolute no no. I guess everybody does it occasionally, say to get a reluctant feeder started, but I can't see the point in using live animals if you don't need to. It seems to me more inconvenient...what if the snake isn't hungry? Then you're stuck with a little rat that needs it's Mama!

Nope not a single law, I know the guy at the petstore feeds them to the store snakes alive. I bought 2 rat pups that are just weaned it seems, he at one and is full, the second is eating hampster food and is being kept alive until next feeding, no problems. However with small pinkies I'll just be out of luck, not to mention... Live pinkies are twice as much as frozen lol.

BTW random question, how many pinkie mice should I feed to a 2 ft 4 in male garter and how often? I see a lot of pictures with bulkier looking snakes, but mine always seems to be a bit slimmer than others I've seen. thoughts?

Stefan: Nope, fear of rodents.... Kinda annoying.

[Cazador]

The cheap and common meds are Flagyl and Panacur for amoeba/protists and worms, respectively. I don't feed pinkies, so I'll let others field that question. If the scales are continually spread apart (even before a meal), and you can see stretched skin between the scales, they're considered to be obese. A little bit of separation between the scales isn't bad, but the stretched skin is a real indicator.

Rick

[drache]

I'm still trying to get around the freezer issue
do you perhaps have a friendly neighbor, friend, relative living near you whose freezer you might rent a tiny piece of real estate in?
it would make things just so much easier
your S/O can't be pacified with brown bagging or opaque containers?
I'd think she'd be much more freaked by you bringing live rodents into the house

[Thamnophis]

I feed my garter snakes only one pinkie every feeding. Next to that they get smelt and chickenheart in the same feeding.