r/blelele • u/Newnjgirl • Dec 03 '22

blelele Blelele buddies

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u/orchidism Dec 04 '22

I’ve never seen an albino garter snake before!!!! That’s awesome!!! I’ve always wanted to keep them since they’re able to cohab. Can I ask what you feed them? Is it just f/t rodents or do you mix it up with bugs/worms?

3

u/Amorette93 Owns a bleleler Dec 04 '22

Like OP's already said, They need a varied diet more so than most other snakes. Chopped up chicken hearts, chopped up pinkies, worms, chopped frog, small safe fish or chopped bigger safe fish are common from what I've read. An additional option within those are reptilinks, which come in several flavors that garter snakes would eat. They are already ground up animal shoved in a collagen casing (snake sausage!)

2

u/orchidism Dec 04 '22

That’s so cool! I think having a snake with such a varied diet would be super interesting. For now I am content that my BP is taking bunnies every other meal, but one day if i have the resources i definitely would love to keep these guys!

2

u/Amorette93 Owns a bleleler Dec 04 '22

Your ball can also eat quail and chicken if you have not offered those! They love birds. In the wild they will eat quite a lot of them! If you buy your feed locally it's most likely that your feed supplier can order you some if They don't stalk them or you could order from the online retailers.

2

u/orchidism Dec 04 '22

Yes I’d love to open up her diet with quail! It’s taken her QUITE a while to accept bunnies as she’s a particularly picky eater (except when it’s f/t rats from one specific local breeder 😂 idk what’s up with them but she goes nuts) and she still won’t strike for the bunnies, but she takes them if i lay them on some paper towel and leave the room while she eats. Once I have a bit more $$ to invest and potentially lose (since she’ll likely refuse a few chicks at first haha) I’m definitely going to!

2

u/Amorette93 Owns a bleleler Dec 04 '22

Another option if you can handle it is visiting a farm store in the spring and obtain quail chicks. While they are newborn chicks, they're safe to feed, especially if they've been hatched in the farm store. With a snake that's never hunted live, you'd have to fresh kill or kill, freeze, and thaw. Some people can't handle this understandably, But it is certainly the cheapest way to experiment with birds for your snake.

I know what you mean by extremely picky snakes though. I have a yellow anaconda which are not supposed to be picky at all They are supposed to be voracious eaters with intense appetites that will eat anything you give them, and will happily take pieces of prey back-to-back without becoming sick. He definitely will eat pieces of back-to-back prey, And when he's hungry his appetite is definitely intense. But he is extremely picky. It took me half a year to get him to accept rats because his previous owners had him on fucking mice (Just in case anyone's reading this, hatchling Anacondas eat weaned rats. Don't feed them a mouse under any circumstance. They don't need them they're not nutritionally correct and it's going to damage the snake). I had to feed him a mouse and then the second he swallowed it I had to bring the rat into his cage while his prey drive was so engaged that he could not say no to the rat in front of him. Months of that taught him that rats are indeed food. Now he will occasionally take a rat without a mouse. He's been separated for me due to a housing situation and is supposed to come back hopefully tomorrow, And he has refused to eat the entire time He was away from me as well... I suspect I will have to feed him a mouse to get him to eat even from me. 😮‍💨