Of Snakes and the Mice Who Feed Them

This is my snake, Reggie*









*Okay, I didn't have a picture of her, so this is a picture of another valley garter snake, but she looks pretty much exactly like that.

This is what Reggie eats:















No, not the quarter.
You can buy frozen mice at pet stores as food for reptiles. They come in varying sizes: pinkies, fuzzies, hoppers, and adults (which is one of those things I could never imagine knowing before). At first it seems gross to feed cute baby mice to a snake, but it's the healthiest food for the snake, and you get used to it.

Reggie eats about once a week. (Snakes are the easiest pets to care for.) But sometimes in the fall snakes won't eat well, because they are preparing for brumation, which is the reptilian form of hibernation.

Anyway, two nights ago I put a mouse in Reggie's cage and then forgot about it. Then last night (right before dinner, as luck would have it) my wife brought it to my attention that Reggie had not yet eaten the mouse, which was starting to look a little bit gross under the heat lamp. So it wasn't a pleasant sight or smell to clean up, but it was still better than the rotten potatoes.

Comments

)en said…
I can't believe you have a real pet snake. Who's jealous now?

I am not jealous of having to feed it frozen rat babies though.
September 9, 2008 at 2:16 PM
Erin Stones said…
For some reason this post reminded me of the time in 9th grade that all of us GT geeks did the animal study at the Hogle Zoo. Remember that? (Then the next year they took the GT geeks to San Diego to do their animal study- we got ripped off!) It rained all day and could have been miserable, but turned out to be pretty fun!
September 9, 2008 at 4:56 PM
Joel said…
I didn't know about that. Cheapskates!
September 9, 2008 at 4:57 PM
ATH79 said…
Gross, I hate snakes.
September 10, 2008 at 10:35 AM
Joel said…
Good old Angie. You get right to the point.
September 10, 2008 at 10:43 AM
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