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Neonatal growth can have lasting consequences on survival and reproduction. In many taxa, larger, faster growing neonates experience higher survival, reach sexual maturity more rapidly, and achieve higher lifetime fecundity. In contrast to their closest relatives, Lake Erie watersnakes grow slower, mature later, and may delay feeding until after their first hibernation. To determine if Lake Erie watersnakes do indeed delay feeding until after their first hibernation, we compared age class 0 (between birth and first hibernation) and age class 1 (emergence from hibernation and through the first full season) snakes in the field and in the laboratory. In the field, only 0.6% of pre-hibernation neonates were found to contain prey, while 11.9% of post-hibernation neonates contained prey. During captive feeding experiments, the probability of eating was positively correlated with age (binary logistic regression, Wald [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]