Oh... oh my

[Lori P]

Er... I think my Florida Blues are in the other room making nice-nice. :eek: You know, when I got them, I did realize that some day, maybe I'd have babies.

But now it occurs to me....

Someday, I might have BABIES!!!!!

Am I ready??? Did I really think this out?? Will I be a good mommy?? Will I be able to afford clothes, school, doctor's visits, college??

But seriously, he is all over her and not eating... she moves and he stays right on her. Omg, I really didn't expect such activity till maybe spring... was that naive? I have to run out to the pound right now to pull two little tiny dogs at the end of their time, but as soon as I get back I'll post pics...

Should I dim the lights? Throw on some Barry White? Make her a little lacy negligee?

[infernalis]

Cute post Lori.

Welcome to the baby club (One day down the road)

[reptile3]

Lori, your sooo funny...

[Snake lover 3-25]

lol hope she has tons:D

[count dewclaw]

Should I dim the lights? Throw on some Barry White? Make her a little lacy negligee?

Sounds like they're doing just fine without all those things! ;)

[drache]

Sounds like they're doing just fine without all those things! ;)
my thought exactly

[Jack Neary]

Lori,
Would love to buy some of those babies from you next Spring!
Let's hope all goes well between them! Maybe dinner and a movie to follow? ;)
Regards,
Jack

[Lori P]

Just got back, and they are nowhere in sight... but there is cigarette smoke curling out of their favorite hide. LOL

It just kind of shocked me... I'm not ready to be a mommy yet... well, I guess I'd be a grandma huh? Oh, the responsibility!!! This is a big step...

Does this look like nookie?

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/Nookie_003_resize.jpg

[reptile3]

to me, it looks like it... :eek:

nookie, I love how you all improvise the words!!

[guidofatherof5]

Lori, Think Pell grants for college and this is one time socks as gift will be just fine. I hope you get a slug of babies. Good luck.

[Stefan-A]

I hope you have better luck with your snakes than I've had with mine, Lori. :)

[GartersRock]

Hopefully Lori!! :D I know though sometimes my males will do this of season but the female isn't receptive. :( But I hope so!

[Lori P]

Well... I really was thinking there would be another year for me to prepare. So maybe this is just practice. LOL It's one of those things where I'm not serious enough to seperate them... but just kind of hoping for more time. The female was more interested in her breakfast than him, anyway. Hey, sounds a lot like me some days... LOLOL

[guidofatherof5]

Let me get this straight. You thought they would wait until you gave them the go-ahead:D You left two young, impressionable snakes alone. What did you think they were going to do:confused: CLEAN THERE ROOM! STUDY!
Oh Lori, we need to talk! I wish the young couple my best.

[Lori P]

LOLOL!!!! Hey-- I'm a very trusting person! They SWORE there would be nothing going on but pecks on the cheek! Sigh..... kids these days... I thought I raised them right. Do chastity belts come in garter size???

[Sid]

Congratulations, Lori. I have a pair of Easterns courting at the moment as well.

[anji1971]

Better keep an eye on those two, or they'll be visiting chatrooms and sneaking out to meet older snakes, getting into all kinds of shenanigans..........
They just grow up so fast, these young ones.:rolleyes:

[brain]

Lori
I’m still confused as to the look of the T. sirtalis similis - Blue Stripe and the T. sirtalis sirtalis - Florida Blue. Both are found on the east coast correct? Both have the blue colors, so it would seem to me, as I have noted, the biggest difference is the temperament?

To say nothing of the T. sirtalis pickeringii - Puget Sound which is found here in Washington State?

I think I would like all of them but due to limits of my reptile room ... Any light you can shed would be helpful.

[guidofatherof5]

Lori,
You're asking about chastity belts, now:eek:
We really need to talk:D

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Lori
I’m still confused as to the look of the T. sirtalis similis - Blue Stripe and the T. sirtalis sirtalis - Florida Blue. Both are found on the east coast correct? Both have the blue colors, so it would seem to me, as I have noted, the biggest difference is the temperament?

To say nothing of the T. sirtalis pickeringii - Puget Sound which is found here in Washington State?

I think I would like all of them but due to limits of my reptile room ... Any light you can shed would be helpful.

There are many differences between those two subspecies... temperament is one of them but thats never a black and white ordeal. They have different patterns and different shapes as well.

[drache]

Lori
how cool
can we trade babies in spring?

sometimes my males will do this of season but the female isn't receptive.
according to my vet, many garters mate before brumation
and the females may just store the sperm
have your females never been gravid the next spring after such matings, Amanda?

[Lori P]

Michael, I was confused about the difference, also. The Florida Blues have the eastern look with the blue shading (which never comes out in my pics, I'll have to get them outdoors one day; they are such a gorgeous blue). The similis have different markings, like Shannon said.

We'll have to post pics of both of them side by side to compare. I'll see if I can find some.

[Lori P]

Rhea, yes, unless I fall in love with all 2,000 and decide to keep them. LOLOL Any chance she'll just have 2??

[drache]

Any chance she'll just have 2??
sure
with a first time mom that's a real possibility

[Lori P]

Well... according to Dan, she had just had a litter. I think these two have been doing the deed together for a while!! My little (quite big, actually) girl is a hussy.... LOLOL

[guidofatherof5]

Yes, a hussy but a happy hissing hussy! Sorry, it's to early on Sunday morning for me to be thinking.

[brain]

Michael, I was confused about the difference, also. The Florida Blues have the eastern look with the blue shading (which never comes out in my pics, I'll have to get them outdoors one day; they are such a gorgeous blue). The similis have different markings, like Shannon said.

We'll have to post pics of both of them side by side to compare. I'll see if I can find some.

Well, TY. I know the Corn and Gopher have a few color differences in he wild, but I was never aware the many color difference between sub species’ like the garter.

This makes it difficult to decide what species’ snake I want to provide a home for. It would be helpful to see (as close as possible) the differences.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

you can check out this article here

http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets/index.php?title=Blue_Garters_from_Florida

which I recently added some more information and photo's to. A few differences I have noticed visually between similis and sirtalis:

The "checkered" part on the backs of the two snakes differ in size and shapes. If you start at the stripe and go down, there are often 2 rows if very square checkers, very prominent well defined on the easterns, and 3 or 4 rows of less defined checkers on the similis.

As babies, I noticed the easterns have extremely huge beady eyes. even more so than other eastern babies!

The labial scales on a similis are extremely bright and well defined from the rest of the head, while on the easterns they are usually a little more toned down and not so stand-out-ish.

These are just a few of the little quirks I use to ID the two snakes in my head. It's so instantaneous for me to look at a blue garter from florida and say "sirtalis" or "similis" that it's very hard for me to articulate what it is that helps me decide that so quickly. I guess it just comes with expierience.

[brain]

she had just had a litter.

Webster definition

Litter - the offspring at one birth of a multiparous animal <a litter of puppies>
And a
Clutch - a group of eggs laid by a reptile or bird.

What do we call the group of newly “born” garters? :confused:

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

So Lori... are you ready for THIS yet?!?!?!
I only had my female for an hour before I suddenly had 20 more of her... at least you've got a LITTLE bit of time :D

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/836025.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/457444r006.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1030815.jpg

[brain]

Noted "expierience" is the best teacher. TY
I did check out the care sheet earler for the critters but that's where I got confused. New update i'll go look. :)

[Stefan-A]

Webster definition

Litter - the offspring at one birth of a multiparous animal <a litter of puppies>
And a
Clutch - a group of eggs laid by a reptile or bird.

What do we call the group of newly “born” garters? :confused:
Clutch. Strictly speaking, they actually hatch.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

they are a clutch.


But I love to say litter anyways :D

[brain]

Ovoviviporous correct scientific term for animals that carry the eggs internally and upon delivery of the offspring the entire shell structure has thinned to the point that only the thin mucous membrane remains from which the offspring emerges. Because no whitish shell structure is seen and the membrane is sometimes broken through by the time the baby is fully delivered by the mother, people often assume that these babies are born live.

[brain]

OK litter :)

[Lori P]

Well, since they've decided to expand the family, I decided today that they needed a much bigger apartment. LOL Someone gave me a huge, and honestly, kind of ugly homemade enclosure a few weeks ago and I've been pondering what to do with it. So today I decided to move the Blues family into it. It's 4 feet long, 2 feet deep, and a bit over 2 feet tall. I did a quick set up... but believe me, I have plans for it to improve it. This will do for now tho.. it doubles their space.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/wooden_enclosure_001_resize.jpg

I think I can work with it, make a background like we did for the bp's!

And here are the Blues, Sanibel and Captiva, after moving in. They went right back to that cardboard hide thing... they LOVE that!

Captiva (the male: What're you looking at? You're just jealous! That's right, she's all MINE!)
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/nookie_male_resize.jpg

Sanibel (the female: I'm sorry? Do WE watch YOU???)
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/nookie_female_resize.jpg

:)

[olive oil]

That is not too ugly, I bet they love it!
Wish someone would give me one! :)

[Lori P]

Well, lol, I did sound like I was looking a gift horse in the mouth there, didn't I?? I should have said how excited and grateful I was to get it for free. :-) I don't like the screening on the front... I guess I'm used to looking thru glass or plexiglass. I'm sure Jamie could change it out one day. I guess to me it kind of looks like a rabbit cage or something. But, it is HUGE (it blocked the mirror over top of my dresser... now I'll never know what I look like-- that's probably a good thing LOL) and I have to stand on a stool to get into it.

But overall, yes, it is big and spacious and has lots of room for improvement. :-)

[Loren]

Nice snakes and cage Lori. What size are the holes on that hardware cloth(screen)? It appears to be 1/2 " to me, judging by the number of holes per 2' of cage (yeah, thats right, I have nothing better to do than count holes :) )
Anyhow, Are you posiitive they cant escape, or get heads stuck in the screen? I once had to very carefully cut the 1/4" hardware cloth on one of my lids to remove my young california mountain kingsnake who was stuck. Now I always raise snakes past a certain size before putting them into cages with my home made lids.

[Lori P]

I'll have to measure. Too small for the adult blues, but certainly way big enough for babies to scoot thru. Er, we better get that changed before any wee ones appear!!

[drache]

gosh, Lori
don't worry about the mirror thing - some days it's better not to know
congrats on getting the cage, and yeah it's a bit unattractive at the moment, but it can be improved upon

[mtolypetsupply]

Congrats, Lori, on the new cage as well as the upcoming babies (we hope).

Just one question, were they already married or is a shotgun wedding in the works???? LOL

[GartersRock]

Rhea, I actually meant the male courts but copulation never occurs. ;)