Blackneck Garter Acting Strange/Freaking Out

[EasternBlackNeckedGarter]

Hey everyone, long time no post. Which is good, I guess, seeing as I only post on here when I have problems.
My Eastern blackneck hasn't been herself lately. She's a long-term captive and I've had her for about five years now, and she'd gotten pretty used to me in that time. Not enough to be handled, but enough to stay out while I was in the room. As of getting back from vacation two weeks ago (we had a petsitter), she's been acting out, agressive, and skittish. I don't know what's going on with her.
I've been keeping her in a 20 gallon long with a weighted screen top, aspen bedding, and a low wattage heat light that goes off at night.
She's 38" and normally eats three pinkies a week, but today I decided to give her a medium mouse since she seems to be pretty hungry.
As I was feeding her today, she started freaking out, slithering around her cage erratically with the mouse hanging from her jaws. Eventually she calmed down and ate it, but as of right now my entire reptile room reeks of musk. I've turned off her heat just in case she's too warm in there.
Any idea what could be causing this sudden change? She's never done anything quite this dramatic.
Here's a link to a short portion of her tantrum: https://instagram.com/p/6GbmHzl29P/?taken-by=afroherpkeeper
Thank you!

[d_virginiana]

First of all, I've got to recommend not feeding anything with hair on it. Their systems just aren't meant to handle it, and members here have lost snakes due to impaction from hair. It's better to stick with feeding more pinkies.

The behavior in the video doesn't seem that weird to me. I've seen all my snakes do it at some point. If they think something might be about to snatch the food from them, they try to carry it off, especially if they're really hungry. That being said, three pinkies a week doesn't sound like a lot for a mature female... That's the minimum that I'd feed to one of my smaller males.

[Zdravko092368]

Three pinkies per week is perfectly fine for an adult female, pinkies have high fat content. The snakes weight seems healthy to me.

As for the behavior, I didn't see anything I wouldn't consider normal there, I have very tame females that can thrash about for seemingly no reason occasionally, my one adult female once thrashed around with a worm so hard she uprooted a pothos plant and knocked over a tank decoration. They can get very defensive of their food.

[Albert Clark]

IMO, the actions of the garter were normal in that she was hungrier than usual. Beautiful garter btw! The only way three pinkies is enough for a female adult garter is if the pinkies are rat pinkies. If they are mice pinkies they are not enough unless she is getting smaller prey like fish or nightcrawlers as supplementation. As evidenced by the feeding response she needs more nutrition than 3 pinky mice per week. Remember, garters have a very high metabolic rate and pinky mice are not enough on a weekly basis. She should have hairless hoppers or hairless fuzzy mice.

[Zdravko092368]

You can see she is healthy and a perfectly fine weight from this video, so the three pinkies must be working as the snake is five years old and a healthy weighthttp://cdncache-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png (http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/#80049388).

[guidofatherof5]

A friend of mine saw the video and was wondering if that was a rat pup in there? If so, is that a normal food or was this the first time you offered it?

[Zdravko092368]

A friend of mine saw the video and was wondering if that was a rat pup in there? If so, is that a normal food or was this the first time you offered it?



It's a medium mouse and in the post he specifies he does not normally feed anything with hair.

[guidofatherof5]

It's a medium mouse and in the post he specifies he does not normally feed anything with hair.

Thanks for the clarification.

[guidofatherof5]

My question about the rat pup wasn't with regards to the mouse in the snakes mouth but the one on the stone. It certainly looks like it has less hair then the one in the mouth but yet it's larger. Looks like a small rat pup. Just wondering if there is a new prey item in the enclosure that might have triggered the response. It might also be that the keeper was away for 3 weeks so the snake needs to settle back into the normal routine since there had been a stranger caring for it.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//821/medium/rat_pup.jpg

[Zdravko092368]

I had a feeling you wondered about that, it looks soaking wet but what the snake is eating seems relatively dry to me which is why they look so different but it could be a rat I guess. Also I agree with you that she may have been stressed because of the other person caring for her, not to fault that person but snakes can be picky sometimes.

[Albert Clark]

The pinky mice both mice and rat have little available calcium for a adult garter. Mice pinks have less than rats but as long as the diet includes other available prey it's fine.The garter does look healthy thats why I am surprised to hear of what he feeds her.Even if you go by the 10- 15% feeding guide or the girth of the snake certainly 3 mice pinks is inadequate. So , with that in mind I would think the garter should be larger.

[d_virginiana]

They did say she was wild-caught and that they've had her for five years... It's possible that she's quite old I guess. She looks pretty healthy, so I guess it's possible she's at the age where their metabolism starts to slow down. My oldest guy eats a ridiculously small amount and still looks pretty healthy.

Regardless, it definitely won't hurt to feed her a bit more, so you could try giving her more mice, or supplementing with nightcrawler treats throughout the week. If she is feeling hungrier than normal, that should calm her down a bit.

[EasternBlackNeckedGarter]

Sorry I was away for so long. I'll clarify a few things. When she was found she was only about two feet, so I can't imagine she's over 7 years old. And yes, that is a rat pup on the tile. It was suggested to me to try feeding one since it's much larger but has little hair. She tried it out, but dragged it over to the other side of the tank and dropped it. I had another mouse thawing for a boa, so I figured I'd try that, just to get some food into her. The rat was rinsed off and went to a blood python.
So, should I try one or two more pinkies, a few fuzzies, try rat pups again, or supplement nightcrawlers?

[guidofatherof5]

The rat pup might explain some of her behavior since rat has such a distinct smell. The new smell, owner being gone, new person caring for her, someone over the top of her while she's eating. This all could explain the musking situation. Just a thought. The rat pup recognition wasn't mine but Steve Schmidt. Thanks Steve for your input to this situation.