What Kind of Insects Do Baby Garter Snakes Eat
What Do Garter Snakes Eat? 12+ Foods in Their Diet
Updated: February 3, 2022
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A-Z-Animals.com
One of the about common snakes throughout much of North and Cardinal America, the garter snake is a member of the Colubridae family. Colubridae is the largest family of snakes, with roughly 1,700 species. About Colubrids either have very weak venom or are entirely not-venomous, so they are considered mostly harmless to humans. And then, what do garter snakes eat?
Despite their non-threatening advent and small size compared to more fierce predators in the Serpentes suborder, garter snakes are yet quite skilled hunters who feed on a diverseness of animals. These footling snakes are incredibly useful ecologically by decision-making rodent and insect populations, and many gardeners even like to proceed a few around in their backyard to keep pests abroad from their crops.
Allow'southward take a look at what the average garter snake eats on a daily basis, how they locate and accept down their prey, and the various higher-level predator animals they have to look out for whenever they're searching for their next repast.
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What Foods Do Garter Snakes Eat?
Like all snakes, the 30+ unique species of garter snakes are strict carnivores. This means they don't eat plant thing and subsist solely on meat from other animals.
Because they are one of the smaller varieties of snakes and lack powerful venom or the ability to constrict their prey, they prefer to hunt animals that are small and weak enough to easily ambush and swallow whole.
Garter snakes won't eat animals that are already expressionless or decomposing, either! Their prey needs to exist alive for them to be interested in it. However, they will occasionally eat eggs from smaller birds and reptiles because they are like shooting fish in a barrel targets and take lots of protein.
Here'south a listing of the many kinds of animals garter snakes eat regularly:
- Small invertebrates similar earthworms and slugs
- Frogs and toads
- Insects similar crickets and grasshoppers
- Salamanders
- Newts
- Lizards
- Birds, especially smaller species
- Small bony fishes, ex. minnows and guppies
- Rodents similar mice, shrews, and chipmunks
- Smaller snakes, especially babies and juveniles
- Snails
- Eggs (from birds, reptiles, or fish)
How Do Garter Snakes Hunt Prey?
iStock.com/Katie Duncan-Burt
Despite their small size, garter snakes are skilled hunters who use their lightning-fast reflexes to ambush their prey. They also have fantabulous sight and a swell sense of smell. Their sharp senses help them locate and stalk their casualty without immediately alerting the prey creature to their presence.
A garter snake'southward tongue rapidly darts out of their oral cavity and flicks at the ground and air, picking up scents and transmitting data most them to their vomeronasal organ (as well known as a Jacobson'due south organ). This organ is located in the roof of their mouth.
Their vomeronasal organ and so interprets the data, alerting the snake to what kind of prey is nearby and how far abroad they are (every bit well as locating predator animals nearby, too!).
In one case they've located their next meal, a garter snake will wait for the perfect moment to strike earlier swallowing the prey whole. Side by side, they apply the powerful muscles throughout their body to slowly move the animal down their digestive tract.
Interestingly, although garter snakes were long considered to exist non-venomous, more contempo inquiry has shown that their saliva actually possesses a very weak neurotoxic venom. Although it's somewhat constructive for hunting smaller animals, the venom is mild and non-lethal to humans, especially since garter snakes lack the hollow fangs needed to effectively and reliably evangelize it to their prey.
What Animals Swallow Garter Snakes?
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Because they are so small and lack much in the way of defense mechanisms, garter snakes are commonly preyed upon by a number of larger animals, including other snakes!
More than specifically, garter snakes have a huge assortment of mammalian, avian, amphibious, and reptilian predators to look out for while they're on the hunt for a meal, such as:
- Foxes
- Bears
- Bullfrogs
- Raccoons
- Hawks
- Snapping turtles
- Crows
- Eagles
- Herons
- Owls
- Larger snakes like kingsnakes and coral snakes
Despite their weakness and small size, garter snakes actually practise possess just one somewhat effective defence force mechanism. They tin emit a foul-smelling secretion from the glands surrounding their cloaca, which helps to deter certain predators!
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