Newbie

[Peet]

Howdy,
Gerry led me here after giving me two of his hatchling infernalis. I'm in Woodside, CA. I've worked with Santa Cruz (aquatic) garters (fairly easy) and Coast (terrestrial) garters - very easy; we have a nice red morph up here and they'll eat anything that moves (including each other if you're not careful).
So far the 10 day old red-sided's aren't eating; coast garters would be by now but I'm hopeful they'll come around by next week.
Oh and I also have an Oregan red spotted garter that's very attractive and feeding voraciously on mice.

[adamanteus]

Hi Peter, and welcome to the forum.:)
Looking forward to seeing some photos of your snakes.

[zooplan]

Welcom Peter,
I hope you´ll enjoy the forum like we do

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard, Peter. :)

[Bay_area]

Welcome Peter! You will like it here, I am sure.

BTW, my name is with a "J" not a "G"

Sincerely,
Jerry

[Sid]

Welcome to the forum, Peter.

[drache]

welcome to the forum, Peter
it took me close to teo weeks to figure out what my Eastern babies would eat
I hope yours find something they like to eat soon
yeah - most of my oregon redspots took pinky strips from the beginning

[peter b]

Hi Peter,
I just joined myself and so far have found the site to be a wealth of information and warmth. My name is Peter as well so being that I joined a few hours earlier that makes us Pete and Re-Peet!
Enjoy the site!
peter

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, Peter :)

[anji1971]

Hello, and welcome!:)

[infernalis]

Welcome and hello.

any Amphibian will instantly trigger a feeding response.

If you have any access at all to polliwogs froglets or newts, the snake cannot resist.

Live minnows in a small clear water bowl, A glass ash tray works great, Darker contrast minnows work best, the motion sets off an instinct to strike and swallow.

Good luck, Infernalis is a beautiful species,

[Aundrea]

Hi and welcome to the board!!!! :D

[jitami]

Welcome Peter! Please keep us posted on how the babies are doing!

[bio6464]

You West Coasters get all the cool garters...oh well I love my PLAIN ole' easterns. :D Welcome, you'll be amazed at the wealth of info on this site.
Jerry

[Peet]

Welcome and hello.

any Amphibian will instantly trigger a feeding response.

If you have any access at all to polliwogs froglets or newts, the snake cannot resist.

Live minnows in a small clear water bowl, A glass ash tray works great, Darker contrast minnows work best, the motion sets off an instinct to strike and swallow.

Good luck, Infernalis is a beautiful species,
I've tried slender salamandrs (babies) without success. We're in the second year of a drought here so amphibians are hard to come by. We had a speaker at the Bay Area Amphibian and Reptile Society meeting last night that has lots of experience with infernalis. He said, first, no feeding for the first two weeks after birth is normal and second, try slugs.

[Peet]

Welcome Peter! You will like it here, I am sure.

BTW, my name is with a "J" not a "G"

Sincerely,
Jerry
You can blame some e-mails I got from the other "Pete" for the mispelling.

[crzy_kevo]

welcome peter :)

[infernalis]

I've tried slender salamandrs (babies) without success. We're in the second year of a drought here so amphibians are hard to come by. We had a speaker at the Bay Area Amphibian and Reptile Society meeting last night that has lots of experience with infernalis. He said, first, no feeding for the first two weeks after birth is normal and second, try slugs.


Thanks for that tidbit of info, I will try offering mine some small slugs today :D Inferno has been feeding well on cultured toad polliwogs and creek minnows. He takes small earthworms for me too.

All my other garter species have turned down slugs, so I never tried.

(well I have only had Inferno for a couple weeks now)

One of the most handsome garters in the collection:D

You got some pictures, we love pictures!

[Lori P]

Welcome Peter, hope you enjoy it here!! And yes, we NEED pics... :-)

[drache]

I managed to switch a stubborn live minnow eating infernalis to salmon-wrapped brained pinky - she doesn't eat the salmon any more either
it took many slow steps

[gregmonsta]

Greetings :D

[Peet]

Thanks everyone.
I'll get some pics up Monday. My comp is on the frizt and I've hauled out an old one running Windows 98 - rock solid stable but it doesn't talk to my camera.

[Loren]

Hi Peet.
- Loren

[Peet]

Well I tried to post some pics but unfortunately with my camera at the lowest resolution possible they all still exceed the file size limit and I don't know how to compress them - The only on to go through was one very poor out of focus shot of one of my coast garters (hey I got the litter on the cage floor in perfect focus!) :(

[SpyrotheGartersnake]

hi Peter and welcome to the forum! nice Coast by the way
(i wish there were some on the eastern part of the u.s)

[Peet]

hi Peter and welcome to the forum! nice Coast by the way
(i wish there were some on the eastern part of the u.s)
Yeah some of our coasties rival some of the west coast sirtalis subspecies in brilliance and contrast. Others are pretty drab.

[Bay_area]

The ones still here are eating the minnows. Some actually grabbed them out of the water dish. Other ones I held in front of them with the 12" tweezers til they took them. Have to be careful, some are real aggressive. Will need to seperate them when feeding probly. Hopefully Loren & Mike will get down this week to take a couple.
Jerry

[Peet]

I tried again last night - no action with the guppies. I tried presenting them with forcepts and there was still no interest. I also tried a very tiny piece of salmon. That too was ignored by both. Guess I'll just keep trying every other day so as not to stress them out and maybe try worms one more time.

[Garter_Gertie]

DR. DEKAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! You're needed here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get the babies to eat!

[Peet]

Well this is proving to be more difficult then I thought. I went looking for minnows since Jerry mentioned them (or some other fish slightly larger than a guppy just to try something diffferent) and no pet store within 30 miles had anything other than guppies and large goldfish. Since it's been more than two weeks since they were born I decided to try placing a small guppy it the mouth of each snake by gently rubbing it on the side of the mouth until the snake opened up. Well it worked with one of the two, which is great - it swallowed the guppy, and in my experience with difficult feeders once you get the whole swallow-digest thing going they start to feed readily shortly thereafter. The second garter, however, wanted nothing to do with the fish and spat it out. So, I'll keep trying but at least one of them has now fed. Geez - I thought this would be like coast garters where the biggest problem is assuring they don't try to eat each other...

[Hornets23]

Are worms a possiblity? It might want to eat a small one.

[Peet]

Are worms a possiblity? It might want to eat a small one.
I did try them last week; I need to get out this evening and find some more to try again.

[Bay_area]

I did try them last week; I need to get out this evening and find some more to try again.

The minnows are still your best bet. Mike came by this weekend & picked up the ones for him & Loren. To help him choose which ones to take back, I offered them minnows with the 12" tweezers. All have eaten that way, some more than others. Anyhow, The rest of them will be gone this week. That will make my wife happy, since the aquarium is still sitting on the kitchen table...LOL!

[Snake lover 3-25]

hi and welcome to a great forum!!!!!!:D

[Peet]

The minnows are still your best bet. Mike came by this weekend & picked up the ones for him & Loren. To help him choose which ones to take back, I offered them minnows with the 12" tweezers. All have eaten that way, some more than others. Anyhow, The rest of them will be gone this week. That will make my wife happy, since the aquarium is still sitting on the kitchen table...LOL!
I'lll try to get some larger guppies tonight when a store in Mountain View gets it's shipment in. If I'm in luck they may get minows as well.
Get my e-mail about the zonata's? I'm waiting on two at this point. One egg is highly swollen - to about twice the size the other three swelled to for some reason (is there such a thing as a double yolked snake egg that hatches twins?) and the last egg is slightly moldy (has been for weeks) and has some thin spots - so thin you can see the snake's markings throug the shell. The two that hatched look good and healthy.

[crzy_kevo]

it is possible to have more than one snake hatch from an egg there is a vid on youtube

found it YouTube - Check this out 18 snakes in 8 eggs! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1STOyZNNtPo)

[Bay_area]

I'lll try to get some larger guppies tonight when a store in Mountain View gets it's shipment in. If I'm in luck they may get minows as well.
Get my e-mail about the zonata's? I'm waiting on two at this point. One egg is highly swollen - to about twice the size the other three swelled to for some reason (is there such a thing as a double yolked snake egg that hatches twins?) and the last egg is slightly moldy (has been for weeks) and has some thin spots - so thin you can see the snake's markings throug the shell. The two that hatched look good and healthy.

Yes, I got the e-mail. Sorry I didn't reply right away. Super busy with everything & to top it off my Son decided to get married. He calls me about 6 times a day asking questions about the wedding. HOW WOULD I KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WEDDINGS!:eek: LOL!

Congrats on the zonatas! Yes, it could be twins. However, it is probly just one that absorbed alot of water. Those ones are ussually the last ones to hatch. I will try & call you tomarrow

[infernalis]

(is there such a thing as a double yolked snake egg that hatches twins?)

Prehistoric pets once had a clutch that was mostly twins. 2 eggs were triplets!The video is still on youtube.

YouTube - Check this out 18 snakes in 8 eggs! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK7HimuvIfQ)

[Peet]

Minnows worked! Too many "warehouse" pet stores that don't carry minnows have replaced the smaller shops but I finally found one that has them, and both garters ate on their own last night. One had to have a minnow placed in its mouth - but after it swallowed it, and I waited a few minutes and then came back it took a second from my hand so all is well now!
That one big egg has slits in it this morning. There is a tiny bit of red spotting around one of the slits that has me a bit concerned but I guess that isn't too unusual. maybe a partially formed embryo is in there along with a healthy snake? Many snakes prefer to hatch at night (even in an incubator, they somehow know day from night) and if they can't get the job done before daybreak they hang out in the egg and finish hatching the next evening, so it may be tommorrow before I know the status of "monster egg."

[Peet]

Well the one from the oversized egg is out. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a larger than usual hatchling.

[jitami]

Cool... thanks for the update. I know nothing about incubating/hatching eggs and was wondering how the "giant" egg was doing.

[Bay_area]

Well the one from the oversized egg is out. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a larger than usual hatchling.

At least it hatched! I had the worste results this year with all my eggs went bad. 15+ years of breeding snakes & I have never had such poor results. So, BIG CONGRATS!

On the otherhand, I think my rainbow boa is going to have her babies soon. She is cruising around the cage when I got home. That is the most she has moved in 3 months! Keeping my fingers crossed!
Sincerely, Jerry

[drache]

glad you got one of them to take a guppy

it's weird how where you are the pet shops don't have minnows - here they don't have guppies
one pet shop employee was telling me that minnows were guppies
my response was "you work in the fish department, right?"

[Peet]

glad you got one of them to take a guppy

it's weird how where you are the pet shops don't have minnows - here they don't have guppies
one pet shop employee was telling me that minnows were guppies
my response was "you work in the fish department, right?"
Was it a Petco? Cause around here, I think Petco hires the people the DMV rejects.
Good luck with that rainbow Jerry.

[infernalis]

Was it a Petco? Cause around here, I think Petco hires the people the DMV rejects.


Our local petco has one snake enthusiast, he is always a pleasure.

I told him "I got an Infernalis" (Verbatim) and he perked right up and said really, I have never seen a California garter in person.:)

He probably won't work for petco long:(

[Bay_area]

Was it a Petco? Cause around here, I think Petco hires the people the DMV rejects.
Good luck with that rainbow Jerry.

The "Petsmart" I go to for the minnows must hire from there too. Except one guy that is alright. He does know a little bit about snakes & always gives me a few extras when he bags up my order:cool:

No Rainbows yet..My rosy boa should drop soon too. Any bets on who goes first:confused::p

[GartersRock]

Our local petco has one snake enthusiast, he is always a pleasure.

I told him "I got an Infernalis" (Verbatim) and he perked right up and said really, I have never seen a California garter in person.:)

He probably won't work for petco long:(

Cool!! I wish people around here were like this. :p

[Peet]

On my second feeding try, I thought at this point the garters would willingly take larger guppies (I bought two dozen and only one has died so I need to do something with them). After taking a minnow from my finger, one of the garters eagerly approached a guppy I was holding out - tongue flicked it, and recoiled...and then took another minnow when that was offered. Bizarre. I've never seen a garter that not only didn't want to eat guppies but was actually repulsed by them while eagerly accepting other fish. I guess infernalis are just different.

[Loren]

Peet, I like to freeze my guppies in an ice cube tray- a few guppies per cube. That way I always have them on hand, and dont have to take care of them. I just slowly thaw them out in cold water, since fish spoils easily.

My infernalis has now taken 2 consecutive meals of guppy-scented extra small pinkies. I havent actually given him a real fish yet, but he sure goes for the guppy smell.

[Peet]

Peet, I like to freeze my guppies in an ice cube tray- a few guppies per cube. That way I always have them on hand, and dont have to take care of them. I just slowly thaw them out in cold water, since fish spoils easily.

My infernalis has now taken 2 consecutive meals of guppy-scented extra small pinkies. I havent actually given him a real fish yet, but he sure goes for the guppy smell.
I froze a bunch of minnows (and vacuum sealed them first for extra freshness). After one more big minnow meal I'm going to try minnow scented pinkies. I'd feed the guppies to my other garters but I don't want them back on fish. The fish store is close to work but far from home, so I guess at some point I'll just run all the guppies back to where I got them after work (have to keep them at work all day). Too much of a waste to just flush them!

[Loren]

Or just put them on your sandwich!

[Snake lover 3-25]

ewwwww!!!!!:eek::eek:

[Loren]

Whats the matter, you dont like bread?

:D

[ssssnakeluvr]

sounds like a wise crack an old army buddy used to say....."I'd tell you to eat poop (not the exact word) sandwiches but you'd probably tell me you don't like bread!" :eek:

[Loren]

Funny :)


.

[Snake lover 3-25]

lol yeah..... that's it!!!!:D:p