"The Girls" move in together.........

[anji1971]

Well, now that Chili's had her l'il peppers, I decided it was high time she shared accomodations with Deejay. I moved them Sunday, and it was kind of comical at first.
Deejay, having spent the last few weeks trying to crawl through the glass because she could see Chili in the next tank, and couldn't get to her, decided it wasn't so cool once Chili was actually present in "her" space!
This new arrival made life decidedly unpleasant -- immediately taking over the hide, and climbing all over the branches that had formerly only been climbed by Deejay.
There was much head twitching and tail lashing. So much tail lashing in fact, that it made watching TV rather difficult for a few hours! And I began to wonder if maybe I had done something terrible for Deejay's psychological state. Maybe she'd been traumatized and would need therapy............aaaaarrrrrggghhh!!
But by today, everything seemed to have settled itself. I added a second hide, and some extra greenery, and earlier, I caught the two of them right next to each other, although when I looked in Deejay gave a few tail-lashes just for good measure!:D
For the most part, though, they're spending their time rather calmly now:

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/June16-2008_035.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/June16-2008_036.jpg

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

awww, i didnt realize dejay was so large

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

tail lashing?!?! like when they whip their tails around?

[Zephyr]

They make cute roommates.
I too have moved my females in with eachother... They seem to have little "meetings" every once and a while. XD

[anji1971]

tail lashing?!?! like when they whip their tails around?

Yep! She was whipping the glass of the tank all night. Made quite the racket too.;)

[adamanteus]

My melanistic Easterns do that when they disturb each other... even though they've been together for months.

[anji1971]

Well, then Deejay was apparently feeling VERY disturbed!!!:D

[Lori P]

They look very nice together, Anji. :-) Glad they settled in together!! Mordecai did a ton of tail whipping when I first moved Curious and Reed in with him. Funny to see.

[Zephyr]

Also, I've found it's a good indicator of how tame a garter is if you are holding them and when you touch their tail the flick it. It means they're comfortable enough with you to treat you like another snake. :D

[Stefan-A]

Sorry, but I've found that it isn't. In this household, whipping the tail is stricktly reserved for other snakes.

[anji1971]

Deejay's about as tame as they come, but I've never seen the tail whipping until I moved Chili into her house! She certainly doesn't do it to me!

[Zephyr]

Sorry, but I've found that it isn't. In this household, whipping the tail is stricktly reserved for other snakes.Really? I'll be holding onto Fatty and I'm always tempted to touch her cute little tail, and when I do it's always prompted by a series of whips. XD

[anji1971]

I'm always tempted to touch Deejay's cute little tail, and she uses me as a branch to hang from.:rolleyes:
Wraps that l'il tail right around my finger!

[anji1971]

Well, all of a sudden, they seem to have bonded. I find them like this every day now.:)
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/July27-2008_004.jpg

[Kevin_is_a_herper12]

Wow, big girls.....lol ;-)

[drache]

nice pics, Anji
glad they worked it out
I've seen it go both ways
and they look nice together

[Sid]

Nice Anjie. Glad they've settled in Ok.

[reptileparadise]

My melanistic Easterns do that when they disturb each other... even though they've been together for months.

yup, my female parietalis does the same thing when I introduce males. Only for a couple of minutes though

[GartersRock]

Cute!! Very cute!

[crzy_kevo]

thats good new anji glad the girls are getting along together now
and kevin ya they are big girls 31" long i saw them myself :D

[Kevin_is_a_herper12]

I hope mine grows big and fat and is just as big....lol

[crzy_kevo]

if it a girl then it will :D

[anji1971]

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/August_2-2008_064.jpg

[anji1971]

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/Vacation-2008_348.jpg

[jitami]

Looks like they're getting along quite nicely Anji :) No more tail whipping I take it?

[anji1971]

Oh, Deejay still goes at it once in a while.
It's quite funny how she is. It's alright for HER to crawl all over Chili, but when the situation is reversed, she gets all uptight about it. For the most part though, they seem to have called a truce.;)

[Roosterboy]

Cool! They are big! Good thing they get along. What is that shelter( not the half log the other one)

[anji1971]

The other hide is something I bought back when I had my first garter. It's just a bunch of twigs wired together. You can bend it to the height and width you want. I move it around among the tanks depending on who seems to like it most at the time. Now that these two girls are all cuddly and bonded, I've given the bendy-twig hide to my new girl, Autumn.;)

[anji1971]

I recently acquired a bigger tank for my girls. It's not the huge one I'm still waiting on, but it houses the three of them together nicely.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/November_5-2008_009.jpg

And while I had the camera out:
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/November_5-2008_001.jpg
Deejay

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/November_5-2008_019.jpg
Chili. This really shows how red her sides are. As you can see she's not afraid to crawl all over Deejay now. No more tail-whipping going on........

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/November_5-2008_044.jpg
Deejay hanging out with the kids.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/November_5-2008_046.jpg
Here she's getting attached to Kieran! I had to untangle the two of them to put her back in her tank afterward.

[anji1971]

Tonight they were very cooperative for the photo session. They seem to be a pretty tight gang, although poor Autumn seems to always be on the bottom of the heap!

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/November_5-2008_029.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/November_5-2008_030.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/November_5-2008_041.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/November_5-2008_038.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/November_5-2008_037.jpg

[prattypus]

Maybe she's there for the warmth...

[mtolypetsupply]

Those are beautiful babies! Glad they've ceased the infighting. :)

[reptile3]

Anji, they are gorgeous snakies!! I love their tank set up.. How did you get the branch to stay up there? i see you had suction cups, but how did you get those to hold the branch??

Love it!!! Very nice!! thanks for sharing, Oh yeah, they are BIG!!! wow, I have babies!:D

[drache]

great photos
I really like seeing them all in a pile and I don't care why they do it

[crzy_kevo]

steph i do the same thing i actually got the idea from anji wehn i met her to give her autumn we just take normal branch and wrap fake vines around it and then you can use string to attack it to the suction cups

[crzy_kevo]

oh and ya anji nice looking set up how big is that tank and im glad autumn is getting along good with the girls :D

[anji1971]

Thanks!
I "think" the tank is a 40G. It's not as big as I'd like to end up with, but I gave it a try, and they seem to all have enough space. They obviously don't seem stressed out, in fact, when I go into the tank to clean and feed, I find that they're all more calm than ever. Even Chili is starting to venture out to climb on my hand.

[crzy_kevo]

that is awesome anji my girls love there 30 gallon tank but they are sleeping now i think i am gonna give it a really good cleaning set it up in a different way and put the babies in there for the 4 months that george and checkers are in brumation

[Lori P]

Great pics, Anji-- I love their new tank!! And they all look so content together!!

[reptile3]

steph i do the same thing i actually got the idea from anji wehn i met her to give her autumn we just take normal branch and wrap fake vines around it and then you can use string to attack it to the suction cups

thanks Kevin, will do!! A project for this weekend!!!:D