Herpetoculture Inc

Are you feeding your garter snake the right diet? If you’ve been confused by conflicting advice online, you’re not alone. Let’s clear up the confusion once and for all.

Quick Start Guide: What to Feed Your Garter Snake

For baby garter snakes:

• Primary food: Chopped night crawlers
• Supplements: Tiny pinch of quality vitamin/mineral powder every 3-4 feedings (optional)
• Transition plan: Introduce chopped pink mice after 1-2 months, then transition to whole pinks and eventually pink rats
• Key rule: Feed small prey items your snake can quickly and easily swallow

What NOT to feed:

• ❌ Fish flesh or silversides
• ❌ Organ meat (chicken hearts, etc.)
• ❌ Frog legs
• ❌ Live fish or frogs

Why Are Garter Snakes So Often Misfed?

The “Diverse Diet” Myth

You’ve probably heard that garter snakes need a “diverse diet.” This is completely wrong.

Here’s why humans need dietary diversity: We often eat nutritionally incomplete foods like pizza, cereal, and hamburgers. Our doctors encourage variety because we’re missing essential nutrients.

But snakes are different. When keepers try to “diversify” a snake’s diet, they actually end up feeding nutritionally incomplete items like fish flesh or organ meat.

Think of it this way: Would you replace your child’s healthy breakfast with chocolate cake once a week for “variety”? Of course not. Don’t do the equivalent to your snake.

The Truth About Rodent Nutrition

According to Mader’s Reptile and Amphibian Medicine and Surgery—the veterinary “bible” for reptile care—rodents are 100% nutritionally complete for snakes.

This means: ✅ All nutritional needs are met by whole rodents ✅ You cannot improve on this nutrition ✅ You can only detract from it by adding incomplete foods.

Every time you skip a rodent meal to feed fish or organ meat, you’re actually robbing your snake of essential nutrition.

Common Questions About Garter Snake Feeding

“What about fats and hair?”

Hair: The jury is still out on whether ingested hair causes problems. Since rodents aren’t the natural diet of many wild garters, I play it safe and never feed haired rodents—not even fuzzy mice.

Fat content: Don’t worry about it. Eating fat doesn’t make snakes (or you) fat. Eating too many calories does. If feeding rodents, simply feed less frequently. Problem solved.

“Don’t night crawlers lack calcium?”

No. Most night crawlers sold in the US are collected from calcium-rich Canadian golf courses. The limestone bedrock in these areas ensures high calcium content in the soil. Those black specks in the worm’s digestive tract? That’s calcium-rich ingested soil.

Nutritional benefits of night crawlers:

• Excellent Ca:P ratio
• Nutritionally dense
• Perfect starter food for small garter snakes

Consider this: Many urban garter snakes live their entire lives eating nothing but night crawlers from suburban lawns. They thrive on this diet.

“Will night crawlers give my snake parasites?”

Unfounded concern. Garter snakes have evolved over millions of years alongside the organisms found in earthworms. These relationships may actually be beneficial—similar to our own gut microbiome or the protective bacteria that develops on frog skin.

“What about silversides?”

Here’s what most people don’t know: “Silversides” is a brand name, not a species. Companies use different fish species to make this product. Most are harmless, but at least one species is not.

The real question is: Why risk it when they provide no nutritional benefit?

“But my snake LOVES chicken hearts!”

Snakes don’t “love” food the way humans do. That’s why there are no overweight snakes in nature—they eat to live, not live to eat.

Your snake may eat certain items more aggressively when very hungry, but don’t mistake this for enjoyment. Be the responsible keeper who provides optimal nutrition, not the one who fills the shopping cart with junk food because “the kids love it.”

The Right Way to Supplement

If you choose to supplement (it’s optional):

❌ DON’T dust or coat the entire food item
✅ DO add a tiny pinch of powder to a small part of the food
✅ WHEN: Every 3rd or 4th feeding

The nutrition in night crawlers is already adequate, regardless of what you might read online.

Types of Worms: What’s Safe?

Safe: Night crawlers Toxic: Compost worms (red wigglers)

Always use night crawlers for safety.

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My Credentials

Why should you trust this advice? I’ve been keeping herps for over 50 years, maintaining hundreds of species and thousands of individual animals. My approach is based on:

• Pre-medical education at a major research university (biology, physics, chemistry)
• Studies in ecology and evolution of natural systems
• Extensive field research across the US and internationally
• Scientific understanding of reptile physiology
• Direct observation of herps in their natural habitats

My philosophy: Quality care must be grounded in natural history and actual science—not marketing, social media trends, or ego-driven “expert” advice.

Your Turn: Questions or Experiences?

Have you struggled with feeding your garter snake? What advice have you received that contradicts this information? Share your questions or experiences in the comments below—let’s help each other provide the best care possible for these amazing animals.

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Want to learn more about naturalistic reptile care? Explore my other articles on cage construction, humidity management, and evidence-based husbandry practices.

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Key Takeaway: Keep it simple. Night crawlers and appropriately-sized rodents provide complete nutrition. Everything else is unnecessary at best, harmful at worst.

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