Nutrition

Along with your snake's housing setup, feeding is the most important aspect to maintaining your animal's health. If done right, your garter can be on the path to a long healthy life. If done wrong, your snake will die of illness or malnutrition. Take in all of the information you can, and you can make informed choices about how to keep your garter eating right!

Garters in the wild can eat a wide range of foods, from earthworms to small rodents. Your garter's diet should therefore contain a variety of things, and sometimes this is brought about by neccessity rather than desire. Snakes of a certain age may only eat certain things. And adult wild-caught garters may have very picky tastes, sometimes eating only such hard-to-find foods as frogs or tadpoles. However, it is relatively easy to convert picky eaters to convienent foods, which are often more nutritious for them in the long run. Below is a description of each ideal food source for a pet garter snake, with pros and cons of each, and cases for which they're best used.

Earthworms: When garter snakes are first born, this is usually what they'll start out eating. Earthworms, however, should not remain their primary food source for very long. They are good for starting young ones off, but from that point on they should serve as little more than a snack or treat, because they are not as highly nutritous as other foods. When feeding to snakes, always be sure to cut earthworms into sizable pieces, otherwise they will not be digested properly and can kill young snakes. Also, make sure your worms come from non-polluted sources. Worms absorb pesticides from the soils they inhabit, so avoid worms from yard waste and compost piles. Worms from bait shops and pet stores are often safe.

Feeder fish: Often the next step up for growing snakes, fish make up a good part of a garter's natural diet, because they live in marshy regions in the wild. Feeder fish range in size from small guppies, to minnows (tuffies or rosy reds), to goldfish. Feeder fish can easily be bought at a local pet store, although you'll need a tank to keep them in, and to make sure they stay healthy. These are live animals which, because of their 'expendable' nature, are often raised and kept in less than sanitary conditions. As a result, feeder fish often become sick and die quickly. DO NOT feed sick or fungus-killed fish to your snakes, or you risk passing the disease or parasites to them. Feeder fish are often the primary food choice for garter keepers, although they tend to be expensive over time. Because they are live prey, many garters enjoy 'fishing' for their food if feeders are placed in their water dish. This is an important source of stimulation and excersize for potentially bored snakes. There is also another important issue that concerns feeder fish, which is detailed below.

Frozen fish: Easier to acquire and keep, and often less expensive than feeder fish, many garter owners decide to buy frozen fish at the supermarket, thaw it, and cut it into thin strips to feed to their snakes. Opt for freshwater fish over saltwater, and make sure you remove all bones and scales before feeding it to your pets. The same issue that concerns feeder fish is also an important one for frozen fish, and this issue is detailed below.

The Thiaminase Issue: Thiamine, or vitamin B1, is essential to the long-term health of your snake. However, a great deal of fish, including feeder fish such as rosy reds and goldfish contain an enzyme called thiaminase, which will destroy thiamine inside your garter's body. Since the enzyme is replenished with each meal, vitamin supplements will not help your snake, as the vitamin will continue to be destroyed. There are two ways to solve this problem, which can actually be used in tandem. One is to feed fish to your snake that do not contain thiaminase. This is difficult if your snake likes live prey, because these fish will likely come frozen from the supermarket. Another solution is to feed your snake a varied diet with regular doses of vitamin supplements, to minimize the thiamine destroyed. For a list of fish that do/do not contain thiaminase, see my Links page.

Mice: Frozen and thawed mice, ranging from pinky (newborn) to fuzzy (a few days old) are ideal foods for older garters that can be convinced to eat them. Younger garters can also eat chopped up mouse parts. Mice have an advantage over fish because they present no thiaminase problems to snakes. Also, snakes get a greater degree of nutrition from warm-blooded prey than cold-blooded, so they need to be fed a smaller amount of food less often. Keepers of mouse-fed garters also claim that their snakes do not defecate as often, and it does not smell as much. However there are a few drawbacks to feeding mice. One is that they are not always easy to obtain. Frozen mice can be purchased from a few pet stores, online, and from reptile trade shows. Owners who have a large amount of snakes may also raise their own mice. Another drawback is the idea that feeding a diet rich on mice may actually shorten a garter's lifespan. The theory is that garter stomachs are not designed to process the fat of a warm-blooded animal as efficiently as other prey. A buildup of this fat in the animal's liver can shorten its life. However, this complication could easily be avoided with a varied diet. The biggest problem with mice is that most garters do not readily eat them, and must be 'converted'. The easiest way to do this is to scent the mice with a more readily accepted prey item such as fish or earthworms. Serving chopped up parts mixed with other foods can also convert a garter over.

Frogs/tadpoles: Frogs and tadpoles are often prey items of older wild garter snakes. Picky snakes will sometimes take nothing else but these animals, which can cause a headache for their owners who must seek out a pet store that sells them, or catch their own. Neither source eliminates the major problem associated with feeding these animals: bacteria and parasites present in the gut. It is recommended that you try techniques such as scenting and mixing food to convert your picky eater to another prey item.

Insects: Garters do not readily eat insects, such as crickets and mealworms, however they have been known to eat them on occasion. This is most likely because the snake is either very hungry, or attracted by the movement of live prey. Insects are not very well digested by garters, and don't provide a great deal of nutrition for them. So it is recommended that another food source is used.