Baby talk

[Lori P]

So... when garters are first born, what goes on? (All I can think of is Anji's momma snake running to the other side of the tank in horror, lol) Do they come out one at a time... several at a time... are they encased in anything? (What are they in inside the momma... individual sacs or one big sac??)

Do they all start to scatter, or do they hang near the momma for a few minutes, hours, or days? When do they generally start looking for food?

Sorry if this is too basic, but I have NO experience with snake birthing, and am curious. :-)

[GarterGuy]

One thing to remember is that garters don't actually give live birth, in the same sense like mammals do. They actually retain the eggs with in the body, until the point of "hatching". When the garters are born, they're in a sort of "sack", this is basically what's become of the egg...there's no need for a thick shell, since it's retained with in the mother. That's why garters are considered to be gravid, just like other egg laying snakes....not pregnant. They will come out pretty much one at a time, one after the other....there may be breaks where she doesn't have any and then more will start coming out. It's just like egg laying. After being born (at least in the wild) they tend to scatter. If they stay in a group there could be problems with predation or even cannibalism (it's rare, but happens). Often they will end up congregating under the same hide spot or such, but will eventually go they're seperate ways. There's no partental care from the mother. As far as feeding, they still have yolk in their bodies that usually last them for the first week or two and then they will begin to feed, at about the same time they'll shed....this is a good cue as to when to start offering food to your babies....after the first shed. Well hope this helps out and don't worry.....we were all novices at one time.:D

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

i have a question why do pugets and red-spotteds have like 7-10 where as easterns have much higher>

[Lori P]

Roy, thanks SO much!! That explains it wonderfully!! You put into words the question that was at the back of my mind but couldn't get out: that they give live birth yet held eggs... it was confusing me. That's a great bit of info. :-)

[SerpentGirl]

I never knew that. That is cool. :)

[Zephyr]

Um, on the feeding off the egg sac...
One of my baby easterns ate minutes after birth. >>

[Lori P]

I'm sure it can happen, just like newborn chicks sometimes go days before starting to eat and then some hop out and are ravenous. What do you feed a newborn that is soooo tiny??

[adamanteus]

Excellent description, Roy!:)

[Zephyr]

I'm sure it can happen, just like newborn chicks sometimes go days before starting to eat and then some hop out and are ravenous. What do you feed a newborn that is soooo tiny??One segment of a nightcrawler.

[anji1971]

When Deejay was born, I waited a couple days, then fed her a couple of really tiny worms that I dug up in the garden. She wolfed them down immediately and then looked for more -- a sign of what I was in store for, I guess!!! She's still at it.......:)

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I have been fortunate to watch MANY garters give birth. It is AWESOME to see. There's nothing I hate more though than when one comes out and is fully developed, but it never "wakes up". I give them a minute from the time they come out to start moving. if one doesn't, I pick it up and gently rub it with a warm damp cloth to help break the sac and usually this stimulates the little guy to come to life. Doesn't always work though. I hate to see a stillborn :(

in august, was actually doing an educational thing at my house for some children that were homeschooled, they were getting a tour of my snakeroom when I suddenly realized that a mama snake was giving birth!!! So they got to watch it! It was so awesome!

[ssssnakeluvr]

i have a question why do pugets and red-spotteds have like 7-10 where as easterns have much higher>

some of the western species have much larger babies, hence the smaller number. my red spots were close to 8 inches long when born where most easterns are around 5 inches.