An Albert Clark Offspring...

[toddnbecka]

Tuberculosis, highly contagious disease, though fortunately the strain that infects fish doesn't affect people or other warm-blooded animals. I wouldn't want to experiment with feeding infected fish to snakes to see if it would infect them too. Feeder guppies are typically kept in extremely crowded conditions, and naturally it spreads more quickly and easily. Looks like little grey lumps or tumors on the fish.
Back when I had hundreds of fish I raised endler's for feeders for some of those for the same reason. Not sure whether it would be contagious from eating infected fish, but not worth the risk. Unlike most guppies, endler's never eat their offspring, so you can relatively quickly establish a large enough breeding population from a dozen or two.

On another note, I found 2 really small earthworms, and the wee garter snake happily ate those. I simply prefer suitable size worms to chopping larger ones up, and buying a dozen large ones at a time most would die before they'd get eaten by such a small baby.

[Scubadiver59]

Personally, I use San Francisco Bay Brand Sally's Frozen Silversides for scenting, as recommended by Al...they avoid all the bad stuff wild minnows bring into play.

But, since the "worm" ate some of the night crawler-scented small pinky parts, I can avoid the Reptivite...and the Plains Garter did enjoy the crawler snack as expected!

[SerpentineDream]

Originally Posted by toddnbecka

Tuberculosis, highly contagious disease, though fortunately the strain that infects fish doesn't affect people or other warm-blooded animals.

Fish tuberculosis actually *does* infect humans. However in humans it presents as a skin disease rather than a respiratory disease. If you have any cuts or punctures on your hand and reach into a fish tank where it is present that's how you would contract it. It's known as "fish keeper's TB." It's treatable though and wearing aquarium gloves every time you go spelunking in the tank is usually sufficient to prevent you from contracting it. I keep a whole lot of fish and that was something my doctor cautioned me about.

/hijack

I'm also going with Sally's San Francisco Bay silversides in addition to the smallest pinkies I can find in my freezer. The silversides are available frozen at PetSmart. They sell nightcrawlers there too.

In a pinch I have learned that scenting pinkies or pinky parts with the juice from a can of chunk light tuna in water renders them absolutely irresistible to baby garters.