Garter Snakes "bathing" themselves after feeding

[Talon]

I'm a bit curious if any ever observed this before with their garter snakes. I just fed three of my adult male garters in their terrarium a helping of small fish as a snack. Once they were full, or rather, refused to take any more, each one at a time went inside the watering bowl and proceeded to swim around in circles, as if trying to clean themselves. Some took a second dipping and rubbed their faces alongside the bowl as if trying to get something off their face.

Were they aware of their new fishy smell and was simply trying to clean themselves? I'm curious, never seen them bathe themselves after eating pinkies/fuzzies before.

[guidofatherof5]

As a rule garters will keep themselves clean.

[Qwerty3159]

They often wipe their faces after eating. It's not too unreasonable to think they would wipe off their bodies in the water, but who knows. Point is like Steve said, they keep themselves pretty clean.

[Rushthezeppelin]

One of mine cleaned her face in her water bowl earlier today after being a glutton. They also like to soak and swim on occasion too. Some people on here have kiddie pools they fill up for their garters to get some swim time in (make an island in the middle if you do this). I'm personally embarking on a very large enclosure (48x20x30) that will have a small pool big enough for juvies to swim in (I'm going to eventually have something bigger with a pool big enough for adult females.....once I have a house lol). If you are interested in doing that route let me know though as there are a few considerations to keep in mind when doing a water feature.

[Talon]

Thanks for the answers every one. Garters never cease to amaze me! I had a fun time watching them clean themselves.


One of mine cleaned her face in her water bowl earlier today after being a glutton. They also like to soak and swim on occasion too. Some people on here have kiddie pools they fill up for their garters to get some swim time in (make an island in the middle if you do this). I'm personally embarking on a very large enclosure (48x20x30) that will have a small pool big enough for juvies to swim in (I'm going to eventually have something bigger with a pool big enough for adult females.....once I have a house lol). If you are interested in doing that route let me know though as there are a few considerations to keep in mind when doing a water feature.

I actually want to upgrade my current terrarium to something larger. The babies I got are a year now, and getting larger themselves, so I can to move my males into something bigger. I have a large water bowl I got from the pet store. It's about 1.5 - 2 inches tall. The issue with it is my the garters in the past didn't really like having to go up and over to get to the water so I stopped using it. I'm considering getting a tall terrarium where I can fill it with 1.5 - 2 inches of substrate, so they can easily just glide down into the water bowl and have a little fun! However putting that much dirt I'm concerned about any issue with mildew or perhaps parasites being harder to treat.

Mainly I also want a larger bowl so I can occasionally feed them fish(with moderation of course.) Get them some mental stimulation going. They loved it before when I had a bowl of dirt and mixed some worms into the mix for them. I enjoyed also watching them shift around in the dirt looking for food! Would be awesome if I could watch them do the same with fish!

[guidofatherof5]

Set some flat rocks around the water dish. Water level water dishes usually get fouled more quickly because the snakes drag substrate into it. Flat rocks give them a platform to enter from.
So they can go poop in the clean water more easily :D

[Rushthezeppelin]

Thanks for the answers every one. Garters never cease to amaze me! I had a fun time watching them clean themselves.



I actually want to upgrade my current terrarium to something larger. The babies I got are a year now, and getting larger themselves, so I can to move my males into something bigger. I have a large water bowl I got from the pet store. It's about 1.5 - 2 inches tall. The issue with it is my the garters in the past didn't really like having to go up and over to get to the water so I stopped using it. I'm considering getting a tall terrarium where I can fill it with 1.5 - 2 inches of substrate, so they can easily just glide down into the water bowl and have a little fun! However putting that much dirt I'm concerned about any issue with mildew or perhaps parasites being harder to treat.

Mainly I also want a larger bowl so I can occasionally feed them fish(with moderation of course.) Get them some mental stimulation going. They loved it before when I had a bowl of dirt and mixed some worms into the mix for them. I enjoyed also watching them shift around in the dirt looking for food! Would be awesome if I could watch them do the same with fish!

BTW if you want to do a naturalistic setup with natural substrates you might want to look into doing it as a bioactive setup. The main component of this is having a variety of detritivorous invertebrates that basically keep things clean. If you are interested shoot me a PM.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Also with live fish you need to absolutely sure you are giving them fish that are parasite free