Litter of Tiny Red Sided

[mb90078]

My 2 year old Red Sided Het had babies yesterday. I actually still haven't gotten a final count (but I think its around 23). Only one stillborn and 2 jellies.

Is it just me, or are these babies much smaller than average? These are the first newborns I've ever had.

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[thamneil]

Congratulations! Red sides are some of my favorites. Looks like a good healthy batch of snakelets to me! They seem nice and big to me. I was also shocked by the size of my first baby garters. Good luck raising them!

[guidofatherof5]

Look normal to me. Good looking little scrubs. Congrats.

[Eddie]

Nice litter
The size looks normal to me. You either get lots of small ones or a few big ones.
Good luck with them!
Ed

[Invisible Snake]

Congratulations! If you can, post pics of the parents.

[guidofatherof5]

Congratulations! If you can, post pics of the parents.

Or better yet. Send the parents and all the babies to me :D

[mb90078]

Here's the parents (not the greatest photos ever, but I took a couple snaps while taking the babies):54445445544654475448 Excuse the clutter and mess, I was feeding the parents as well while I had them out.

Thanks for all the complements and the reassuring info. I was a bit worried that they might be too small, but you guys are the pros so I'll take your word.

To be honest, this kind of took me by surprise. I saw the parents lock in early February, but then they never courted or mated since...the female got quite a bit bigger than she was, but I was beginning to think that the gestation period was getting on the long side. I took a look in the tank shortly after I woke up, and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary (except for the not yet birthing mother flicking the tongue like she does when hungry). I come back an hour later and see movement. Had to fish all of those little guys out of the big tank.

And yes, the big ones are smart enough to not fall off the table...(most of the time)...I keep a close eye just to make sure.

[ssssnakeluvr]

congrats! nice looking babies. look normal sized to me also

[thamneil]

Those parents are absolute screamers! If only I could get ahold of some of those...

[Invisible Snake]

Yeah the parents look awesome, I love their dorsal stripe. Thanks for posting the pics :)

[mb90078]

Parents produced by Jeff Benfer (http://gartersnakemorph.com/). Giving credit where due. The parents are very cool, and here's to hoping the babies follow in their footsteps (or slithermarks as the case may be).

And if anyone's feeling particularly bored, let me know if you think I'm right with my count of 23 or so.

[guidofatherof5]

I got 23.

[katach]

Amazing little scrubs! Congrats!

[twostripes42]

I got 23 to :p very cute I love baby garter snakes. You know I could take a few... or all of them of your hands.... maybe:p?

[zooplan]

Congratulation, nice breed.
Each year the first babies are looking like the tiniest ever to me :D

[chris-uk]

Congratulations. Looks like a great litter of scrubs.

[Dan72]

Great group of young ones. Thanks for sharing the pics. Was this your plan (breeding) with the pair, it sounds like the litter was unexpected. What are your plans for the litter?

[EasternGirl]

Congrats on the babies! I was also worried when my eastern female had babies and I saw the tiny size of the little scrubs. They were only about 4 inches long when they were born, and their heads were the size of the head of a matchstick. I now have an albino red-sided who is about the same age as my baby easterns...about a month and a half old...and the red-sided is about the same size as the easterns. From your pics, the scrubs look to be a good size. Just feed those little ones every other day like I do mine and they will start growing faster than you will believe! :)

[mb90078]

It was only unexpected in the sense that I thought that they were past the common gestation period. I haven't decided on any long term plans for them yet, but the short term plans are obviously to raise them, starting with getting them eating.

Speaking of which, I dug up some tiny earthworms that I frequently find by my house. I gathered maybe 15 or so, having heard horror stories about people having difficulities getting babies eating. At first, the babies all seemed scared of the worms (tiny tho they were), until one finally decided to eat one, and then many of the rest joined in. I used up all but one or two of the worms i dug up, which really surprised me. Next feeding, I'll split them up to get a good idea of how many are interested in eating vs those that are not. For now, I'm just happy that a majority ate on the first attempt.

And thanks for the headcount verifications...I may have graduated college, but I never was good with numbers. :p

[Invisible Snake]

Hey did you brumate the parents?

[mb90078]

Good question, and I really can't answer it with "yes" or "no". I did not but them in a fridge or other particularly cold place, and they spent the entire winter in their normal tank (which has ample space to burrow). However, the temperature in our house can get quite cool in the winter. I kept the heating pad on for part of the day, but always after a meal. Gradually, their appetite faded for a few weeks in the winter, and so I slowly minimized the amount of time that I left the heating pad on per day. I only left it completely off for a day or two. I slowly increased the number of hours with the heating pad on, and tested their appetite again. After they ate, I again made sure they had ample heat to digest. From there on out, they maintained their appetite.

So I never intentionally brumated them, but as their appetite faded, I allowed their temperature to drop a little. I also observed that one would utilize the hot side of the tank and the other the cool for much of the winter. I pretty much left it up to them, but the temperature never got anywhere near as cold as I imagine most people who intentionally burmate does.

Again, this is my first time, so I don't have enough experience to encourage others to follow this plan, but I would say it certainly worked well for me.

[Dan72]

When you feed the earthworms do you chop them up for smaller bites or did the babies eat them as you found them in the yard? I don't know that I'll get lucky enough to worry about these things with the gravid female I have here, but hoping so and trying to get a game plan in place. Also I know that in the early days after birth them not having enough water is a real concern. In the housing they're in right now do you have damp paper towels, a damp moss, how are you addressing this? Thanks.

[mb90078]

I was able to find earthworms that were very small (even smaller than the already very small babies). For whatever reason, when i have dug for worms in the past, I almost always find 90% very small ones 5% small ones and 5% average sized ones. I almost never find any that approach the size that you purchase at a bait store or Wal-Mart. Although slightly disappointing to find those results when feeding larger snakes, or even sub-adults, it really was convenient for feeding the babies. (As a side note, the adult snakes still do like the tiny worms, but they'd like about a hundred of them, which would require me to rent a back-hoe :p).

I put them on damp paper towels, maybe slightly damper than I should have, but I put dry half paper towel rolls in on top, and regularly changed them if they became damp. I also gave them water to drink in the lid of an "I can't believe it's not butter" tub (the lid, not the tub itself).

[kibakiba]

I find a lot of the giant ones in my garden under the flower bed rocks, anywhere else, I tend to find tiny ones. The big guys probably hide more because they know that they're a lovely meal!

[mb90078]

I tried the cut up larger worm method with the babies, and while I suppose it worked, I think I'll go back to digging and collecting the small ones.

[ConcinusMan]

Just 5 albinos?

[mb90078]

That's all. The odds weren't on my side this time.