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The Critter Digest

Care guides, health deep dives, pet laws, wild animal features and more.

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Common garter snake in an enclosure with a large soaking dish

Reptiles

How Much Does a Common Garter Snake Really Cost?

Common garter snakes are some of the cheapest snakes to acquire, some keepers find one in the backyard for free, but a fish-and-earthworm diet makes the ongoing cost a little less predictable than a standard mouse-eating snake.

Sep 24, 20265 min

Common garter snake investigating a piece of thawed fish in its enclosure

Reptiles

Garter Snake Feeding: Fish, Earthworms, and Why So Many Refuse Mice

Garter snakes are semi-aquatic hunters built around fish, earthworms, and amphibians, not rodents, and a lot of new keepers are caught off guard when their snake refuses a mouse entirely.

Sep 24, 20266 min

Common garter snake being gently supported across two hands

Reptiles

How to Handle a Garter Snake (And Why It Might Musk on You First)

Garter snakes are generally docile and easy to socialize, but a new or startled one is far more likely to musk you than bite you, a defensive reflex worth understanding rather than being put off by.

Sep 24, 20265 min

Common garter snake being examined for signs of illness

Reptiles

Common Garter Snake Health Issues

A garter snake's health issues trace back to the same place its diet does: fish, earthworms, and dampness. Get the diet and husbandry right and most of this list stays theoretical.

Sep 24, 20266 min

Common garter snake enclosure with a large water feature, hides, and basking area

Reptiles

Garter Snake Enclosure Setup: Why the Water Bowl Isn't Really a Water Bowl

Garter snake enclosure setup is simple once you accept the one real curveball: this is a semi-aquatic species, and the water dish needs to be a swimming basin, not a sip-and-dip bowl.

Sep 24, 20266 min

An adult Argentine black and white tegu eating chopped squash and greens from a wide bowl on the floor of its enclosure

Reptiles

Argentine Tegu Feeding: Schedule by Age, the Protein-to-Plant Split, and the Obesity Trap

A tegu eats five times a week as a hatchling and twice a week as an adult, and the plate shifts from nine parts protein to six as it grows. Here is the schedule, the portion rule, the foods that are off the list, and why an adult on a juvenile's schedule ends up with a fatty liver.

Sep 16, 20268 min

A banded California kingsnake taking a thawed mouse from long feeding tongs inside its enclosure

Reptiles

California Kingsnake Feeding: Prey Size, the Adult Interval, and Why One Snake Per Tank

A kingsnake that eats rattlesnakes in the wild eats thawed mice in a tank, every five to seven days while young and every ten to fourteen as an adult, sized to the widest part of its body. Here is the schedule, the sizing rule, why the prey is never alive, and why two kingsnakes never share a feeding.

Sep 16, 20267 min

A red and black fire skink emerging from leaf litter with a cricket in its jaws

Reptiles

Fire Skink Feeding: Five Minutes of Insects in the Leaf Litter, Twice a Week as an Adult

A fire skink hunts through leaf litter and eats what it finds in about five minutes, daily as a juvenile and twice a week as an adult. Here is the feeder list, the head-width rule, the dusting that goes on every time, the treats that stay monthly, and why a skink you cannot see is usually not a skink that has stopped eating.

Sep 16, 20267 min

A bright green anole on a broad leaf lapping a water droplet, with a small cricket on the leaf beside it

Reptiles

Green Anole Feeding: Two or Three Insects Smaller Than Its Head, and Water It Can Lap

A green anole is a five-inch lizard with a small mouth and a fast metabolism, and its diet is two or three gut-loaded insects every other day, each smaller than its head, lightly dusted every time. Here is the feeder list, the portion, the supplement that keeps a tiny lizard's bones straight, and the water rule most new keepers get wrong.

Sep 16, 20267 min

A three-horned Jackson's chameleon on a branch with its tongue extended toward a cricket, water droplets on the leaves around it

Reptiles

Jackson's Chameleon Feeding: Three Insects Every Other Day, and the Supplement That Causes Edema

A Jackson's chameleon is the one lizard where more supplement is the common mistake. Here is the feeding schedule by age, the five-to-seven insect ceiling, the eye-width prey rule, the calcium and vitamin rhythm that keeps a montane chameleon out of edema and gout, and why it drinks before it eats.

Sep 16, 20268 min

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The Critter Digest

How Much Does a Common Garter Snake Really Cost?

Garter Snake Feeding: Fish, Earthworms, and Why So Many Refuse Mice

How to Handle a Garter Snake (And Why It Might Musk on You First)

Common Garter Snake Health Issues

Garter Snake Enclosure Setup: Why the Water Bowl Isn't Really a Water Bowl

Argentine Tegu Feeding: Schedule by Age, the Protein-to-Plant Split, and the Obesity Trap

California Kingsnake Feeding: Prey Size, the Adult Interval, and Why One Snake Per Tank

Fire Skink Feeding: Five Minutes of Insects in the Leaf Litter, Twice a Week as an Adult

Green Anole Feeding: Two or Three Insects Smaller Than Its Head, and Water It Can Lap

Jackson's Chameleon Feeding: Three Insects Every Other Day, and the Supplement That Causes Edema

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