Feeding goldfish

My garters will all take pinkis but they really seem to love fish. I know that feeding goldfish exclusively can lead to thiamine deficiency. How often can you safely feed goldfish? Will alternating goldfish and pinkis on a weekly basis be sufficient, or would just feeding gold fish once every three weeks be better?

I've also heard that rosy red minnows also contain thiaminase, can someone verify this?

What about mosquito fish, do they have thiaminase too?

-Alice

when i kept garters they always had fish available in a special water bowl but i would feed a pinkie once a week and they stayed very healthy.

Hi, Alice-

I'm pretty sure that rotating goldfish and pinkies each week would work fine... I'm also pretty sure that all fish you'd be feeding your snake(s) have the enzyme which breaks down thiamin. If you are really paranoid about it, you can try dipping the pinkies' rumps in a vitamin/mineral supplement that contains B1.

http://www.angelfire.com/or/ladybugc...kefeeding.html

Maybe this web site could help you more...

Brenda

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll just keep alternating prey items. Lately the pet stores have been out of feeder fish, so they've been getting a lot of pinkies.

Alice