New Garter Babies

I have never owned garters before, until now. I have 21 babies that were dropped into my hands. This is what happens since my wife and I are the "Snake People" I have read to feed them guppies, crickets, sluge, and worms. Well, I have worms, my local stores do not carry crickets small enough or guppies for that matter. My question is:

What is the best way to get these baby garters to start feeding?

They are 2 1/2 weeks old, all have shed and I just got them two days ago. I have offered them worms but they just curl up on top of them and do not care. I have boids and some pythons, feeding them mice seems to be an easier task than getting these garters started. I allowed them time to get used to their new suroundings and I decided to start feeding. I keep each of them in a seperate container. As of yet none have eaten. Any thoughts and suggestions, would really be helpful. Thanks

This won't be much help, since you state that your local shops don't have them, but we always just put a few guppies in the water bowl. Might try looking for a small shop vs a chain, or expanding your search a bit. (can guppies be sold in california? that might be one reason you can't find them). you can also try leeches, salamanders, wax worms, etc.

I really have no idea if the sell guppies here, what I have seen in the pet feed stores are Rosie fish, they are way too big for the garters. I will give the wax worms a try, I have about 400 still in my fridge. Would those little fish with a neon color stripe in their bodies work? They are really tiny fish, maybe I will give them a try, I think they are cheap to buy, I will look tomorrow. Thanks for the advice.

The neons? They are expensive here, but yeah, that'd be nice size for them.

I just put each Garter in smaller containers with wax worms. Actually the containers are 8oz cups. I hope this works tonight, I will let you know how things are in the morning.

Do baby garters need to be fed more often than boids? I am wondering because the physical differences between mice and wax worms. I wonder if the garters are able to digest their food quicker, resulting in a need to feed them every other day.

Again, thank you for the advice.

As far as the frequency of feeding, my feeling is that it would depend on the prey items used. I have never kept garters long term, so the remainder of this response is conjecture (tempered with considerable general herp experience). My guess is that if they are eating insects, they will be fairly opportunistic and eat frequently, due to the relatively low nutritional content (compared to fish or rodents). make sure you have water available to them at all times, and don't go more than 2 feedings without the snakes defecating (again, just my feeling due to the insect's exoskeleton). It shouldn't be an issue because garters have a pretty fast metabolism. I don't think every other day will be necessary, but experiment & see what they do. Until they start eating, it is a tough call. I believe that garters from various locales can be somewhat picky (prey specific), and figuring out what they want can be a chore. should you stick with one prey item, and just offer til they eat (bad if they don't); or switch off regularly in attempt to hit the right stuff? Unfortunately, I don't have the best answer to that. Hopefully one of the garter snake enthusiasts will step in and help. hopefully, they'll just eat what you give them (I know, I'm a dreamer...it shows in my habits at home too - offering my babies f/t from the start) good luck

Yes guppies are legal and are sold in California.


Garter/Ribbon Snakes will eat almost everyday if you let them. They will gorge themselves. Every four days is fine

As of this morning the feed count is at a big ZERO, none have taken the worms.

So my next question is: When feeding fish, do I plop them in front of the garters, or do I need to put the fish in a water dish and let swim around?

I am going to the store to try and find some fish. I will probably keep switching up their prey items until they bite as HHMoore suggested. So as of now they have had little squirmy worms and waxworms, hopefully the fish will do.

I always put them in the water...gave the fish more time, and the snake could eat at leisure.

If you can't find guppies, sometimes you can net mosquito fish out of ponds. They make great feeders. Even though they look big, most baby garters can handle the rosy red minnows. Mine have all readily taken fish from their water bowls. I let mine gorge on fish weekly when they were really small. As soon as they got large enough, I switched them over to pinkies using my pet pacific treefrog for scenting. If fish are really hard to come by you could try scenting pinki parts. Mine each get one appropriately sized mouse a week with the occaisional meal of fish for variety. What species do you have?

-Alice