Garter snakes

[stevo-d]

My first snake was a garter called him mojo he used to bite and musk but became very placid with regular handling. Anyway I used to feed him earth worms and some sort of wee fish can't mind what they were called but he died by inflating his whole body and lying on his back all three garters I had died the same way have your ever heard of this even the vet was puzzled it was 20 years ago though.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by stevo-d

My first snake was a garter called him mojo he used to bite and musk but became very placid with regular handling. Anyway I used to feed him earth worms and some sort of wee fish can't mind what they were called but he died by inflating his whole body and lying on his back all three garters I had died the same way have your ever heard of this even the vet was puzzled it was 20 years ago though.

I don't know what death from thiamin deficiency looks like, but if you weren't paying attention to what kind of fish you were feeding your snakes, it most likely could have been from a thiamin deficiency from fish containing thiaminase.

[Albert Clark]

Originally Posted by stevo-d

My first snake was a garter called him mojo he used to bite and musk but became very placid with regular handling. Anyway I used to feed him earth worms and some sort of wee fish can't mind what they were called but he died by inflating his whole body and lying on his back all three garters I had died the same way have your ever heard of this even the vet was puzzled it was 20 years ago though.

If you bought that wee fish from the pet shop and they were minnows or aka Rosie reds it could be parasites that killed the garters back then. That could explain the swelling of his body.Their bodies became one big parasitic abcess! That is IMO. Coupled with the parasites in the earthworms they really were at risk.

[stevo-d]

Originally Posted by Albert Clark

If you bought that wee fish from the pet shop and they were minnows or aka Rosie reds it could be parasites that killed the garters back then. That could explain the swelling of his body.Their bodies became one big parasitic abcess! That is IMO. Coupled with the parasites in the earthworms they really were at risk.

The fish were silver and long and thin in packs of 50 to 100 and were frozen. That's what I remenber. When I think back I used to dig up the mud and get the worms wash them then feed to to the garters all because the guy in the pet shop said it was OK the passion was just the same as today but the knowledge was up to scratch just like that boa man 5423