Odd behavior and a couple questions

[d_virginiana]

Luckily not from one of my garters :) However my rescued redbelly snake (storeria occipitomaculata) continues to act strange.

Here's the timeline; she was in captivity for a week before I got her, but ate nothing. Two days after I got her she ate one good size slug. At that point I figured I could stop worrying about her. But it's been over a week since then, and she hasn't taken any more food.

If I had a young garter her size, I'd be feeding it every day (which is why I'm getting a little paranoid). She doesn't seem to be losing weight, so I'm not panicking just yet. Am I expecting the wrong sort of metabolism from her? Like... Size-wise she looks like she should be fed every day, but age-wise she's probably between 7-9 months old, so should maybe be able to go longer without food. Not sure which 'rule' to go by here. I've been offering slugs and cut-up nightcrawlers nightly.
I would try small earthworms, but there is nowhere nearby that I could fine any (they spray the grass around my apartment a LOT).

Also, I don't believe this is a case of captivity stress. Whenever I check on her, she is perched on her vines, looking around. If I go up to the tank, she'll follow me around through the glass tongue-flicking. She's also very calm when being handled (I have to put her in a small tupperware container to feed since I'm offering slugs). No acting sick either.
I've tried keeping her both in my bedroom (65-70 degrees) as well as the reptile room (75-85). Right now I've been keeping her in the cooler room during the day and the warmer room at night (we sleep with multiple fans running, and it just seems like that could bother her...). She doesn't seem any more or less active in either room.

Any suggestions for what else I can do? I'm considering placing her tank beside my baby garter's and letting her watch him feed. They're close to the same size. Maybe it'll make her more competitive... I'd really like to keep her till spring when she has a better chance being released.

[Selkielass]

Bump.

[guidofatherof5]

Did you see her eat? Very strange. Releasing into the same area she came from is an option at some point.
Although you don't see any outward signs of stress doesn't mean they are not there.

[d_virginiana]

I didn't see her eat, but one of the slugs disappeared from a closed container, and she had an obvious bulge afterward so I'm sure she did. She also passed solid waste for the first time a day or so later. She could be having issues with the cat bite, but if that's the case I can't see anything or signs of infection. You're right, she could be stressed. I've just never had an animal start eating then stop out of stress before. That's what's throwing me off.

I'd like to release her, but I'm running into the issue of there not being much food out and the February temperatures. That's the reason I took her in to begin with, since the weather was going from 75 degrees to half an inch of ice on the ground overnight (normal, bipolar NC weather). Right now, she's not as fat as I'd like but she's not losing weight rapidly either, so I think she has a bit more time before I have to take that risk. If she starts looking too thin I can wait for a warm couple days and release her, but ideally I'd like to keep her till she has a better chance weather-wise...

[ConcinusMan]

I've never heard of red bellied snakes making good pets. All I've heard (from source after source) is that they make lousy captives and do horribly in captivity. So, what you're experiencing seems to be "par for the course". I don't think you really need heat at all. Especially since she's not eating, I would keep her very cool (45-55 F) and on moist substrate. That will help slow her metabolism so she doesn't lose weight as fast. You could release her anytime it's not freezing (Some place with lots of cover/leaf litter /wooded area) and I think she'll be fine. They function quite well at cold temperatures. I wouldn't worry too much that it's not warm outside. They burrow into leaf litter and stay hidden most of their lives anyway, and decaying leaf litter generates heat and will keep her from freezing.

[d_virginiana]

That's good to hear.
The intention was never to keep her as a pet, just to make sure the cat bites didn't get infected and keep her inside for that one random week of 15 degree weather and ice covering the ground. I didn't realize they were that cold-tolerant, so I feel much better about releasing her now. I'll go ahead and start cooling her down by keeping her near the kitchen door for a few days; wouldn't want her to go from toasty reptile-room temps to being outside.
I've been thinking for about a week now that release would be best for her, but I was just worried because it would be a death sentence for many species at this time of year.

There are some very nice areas within an hour of where she was captured (that are much easier for me to get to than her exact capture site due to me having a truly insane schedule with no weekends). I'll start checking for the warmest days in the next week or so that I can release her.

[ConcinusMan]

Weather for Mon, tue, wed looks like it's going to be quite mild. I would go to roughly the same area you found her and release here where there is plenty of deep leaf litter and rotting wood/cover. Even if you get freezing temps overnight she should be fine hiding in that stuff.

Usually when we have mild sunny winter days here, it gets below freezing at night. I still see northwesterns emerging from rotting logs (some of them generate so much heat that you can see "steam" coming off of them in the morning) during the day to get some sun, even in Jan, Feb. The heat generated by this stuff keeps them from freezing at night.

[d_virginiana]

I actually have a specific place in mind with lots of fallen trees and leaf litter :) I was thinking of releasing her where she can just crawl down between the dead tree and bark. It's a nice, safe place, and like you said probably helps retain heat.

[ConcinusMan]

Not just retain heat. If it's dead wood or other rotting vegetation, bacteria consuming it will generate it's own heat. Same goes for leaf litter. I've actually had piles of rotting leaves in my yard catch fire when I stirred them up and exposed them to oxygen.:eek: A lot of snakes here spend the winter inside/under logs that are in a fairly advanced state of decay. It keeps them warm!

Just look at all that heat:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROpf6J0340A

[d_virginiana]

lol. Reminds me of when we used to keep guinea pigs. There was a giant guinea-compost heap in the back yard. One day we were removing it for some reason, and about an inch or two under the surface there was just ash, where it had apparently been catching fire and then smothering itself over and over.

I still can't stand rodents.

[d_virginiana]

She was successfully released today inside a rotting log :) She found a little crevice and burrowed right in. I even scavenged a couple snails and slugs off surrounding trees and dumped them near her hole as a 'going away present'.

As it is, there's no freezing weather predicted in the near future, and for the next week at least temps aren't supposed to get below like 65. I think she stands a pretty good chance.

[ConcinusMan]

Actually that sounds like perfect weather for that species.