Easterns and eating

[Tiffany]

My nephew has caught several easterns since he's moved to Ohio. (Of course, they're all from my tiny backyard.) He's had to let every one of them go, because they just won't eat. We've tried pinkies, worms, slugs, guppies and we've even tried feeding both in his feeding bin and in their enclosure. We've let them adjust for a week or two and they still won't eat.

I've recently spotted a fantastic-looking melanistic (again, in my backyard), but I don't want to keep catching and releasing.

Any suggestions?

[guidofatherof5]

I would stick with the worms for awhile.

[Tiffany]

Should I just leave them in the enclosure or take them to the separate feeding bin like we do with all the other snakes?

[Steveo]

Mail the melanistic to me :P

Does he handle them and/or otherwise stress them out? Does he watch during feeding time? I had a WC adult that was a pretty good eater, but she'd never eat while I was watching.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

I have never had a wild eastern that wouldn't eat worms or fish. Try catching a toad from the yard and rinse a pinky off real good with water and then try scenting the pinky with the toad by rubbing the pinky all over the toad. Most easterns can't resist a toad.

[snakeman]

Buy captive bred.no reason to take from the wild. Garters are cheap!

[Tiffany]

Well, the female took four worms today. Left her alone with them for a bit, and lo and behold she ate. The male didn't eat, but we'll give him a bit. Honestly, I'm pushing for these to be released. My nephew can only keep four locally caught reptiles (being under 17), and to breed these he'd need a propagation license. I'm quite happy to have him catch these, as they're living under my house and I've already found several mowed over by the neighbor.

I certainly don't find garters to be cheap. I bought his granite, and it definitely wasn't inexpensive. I'm not sure how much my sister paid for his albino checkered or the Santa Cruz. I'm currently raising half his red-sided babies (we're bound for a reptile show next month), so I don't think prices are unreasonable -- I know how much time and money goes into raising up a healthy garter.

Snakes are a new realm for me -- I certainly wouldn't go out and catch a feral dog expecting to have a tame pet, but I've seen my nephew's wild caughts, and they're all extremely easy to handle snakes. There's definitely no aggression issues with his wild caughts versus the snakes we've purchased.

Now, I'll be curious to see if we can transition this girl over to pinkies (if he doesn't release the pair).

[Invisible Snake]

Congrats on getting the female to eat. Please make sure that the worms you are feeding your garters are safe worms from the forums caresheet, because red worms are toxic to garters and can even kill them.

Granites are a special morph of checkered garters so they are expensive. Most regular garter snakes (not a morph) are very inexpensive with prices ranging from $15-$50 respectively.

Before transitioning them over to pinks make sure they are eating consistently and then all you have to do is scent the pinks with whatever you have been feeding them.

Feel free to post pics of your garters

[Tiffany]

We're feeding nightcrawlers (lumbricus terrestris). Luckily we have a few around, as I'm using them to scent pinkies for our baby red-sideds. I don't have any good photos of the Easterns, I only have baby red-sideds at my house (all the others are at my nephew's).

Since this thread is about eating, here's a pic during feeding time with some of the the baby red-sideds gorging themselves on pinky parts. I still have a few of the smaller ones that prefer nightcrawlers, but they're all coming along nicely. We've transitioned almost all our garters to pinkies and fuzzies, and I think it was a great decision. We also have a bearded dragon and several corns (someone take the corns, PLEASE!) so we've got a lot of rodent eaters.

[Invisible Snake]

Nice picture, thanks for sharing