First young of the year!

[reptileparadise]

Woohoo!
15 perfect young parietalis, no slugs, no dead young. All seem te be perfect!
These guys are from low red parents.
I've seen mommy pattern, daddy pattern and a weird pattern (they look like they might become very low red)
Better pictures will follow:)
Sorry 'bout the poo!!!!:o
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/excusethepoo.jpg
Mommy pattern, nice and red
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Niceandredmommypattern.jpg
Daddy pattern, very clean
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/daddypattern.jpg

[Stefan-A]

Congratulations! :)

[count dewclaw]

Congrats on the wee ones!

[drache]

congratulations
amazing how different they can look

[gregmonsta]

Congrats on the litter :D

[guidofatherof5]

Nice looking little ones.

[Snake lover 3-25]

CONGRATS!!!!:):) cute!

[TwistidMutations]

Congrats on the litter

[Sid]

Congratulations on the new little ones.

[Snaky]

Congratulations, Sjoerd :)

[reptileparadise]

Thanks all!
I´ll be posting some more info on the date of mating, sheds, restlesness and other stuff soon :)

[reptileparadise]

Okay, here we go...
The female had her first shed of the year on 11/2/2009. She mated in the same week (possibly the same day)
She had a shed somewhere in between (forgot to write it down, but I'm pretty sure it was the second week of march)
She shed again on 23/4/2009
around this point the female started eating a lot less.
She had a restless day around 10/5/2009 and started getting really restless on 12/5/2009. I thought I saw a slight twitch on this day.
On 14/5/2009 I found the young.

All young are eating perfectly. None have shed yet, but they seem to be doing great!
I noticed a couple of animals have reddish eyes whereas others have brown eyes. I never noticed this before...
Red;
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/redeye2.jpg
Brown;
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/normaleye.jpg
Red;
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/redeye1.jpg

[guidofatherof5]

Great photos.

[Zephyr]

The little red-eyed ones are always adorable. :)
Beautiful.

[drache]

sweet looking babies

[reptileparadise]

Thanks all!

Just found the next litter...Thamnophis atratus atratus!
14 young and one underdeveloped young. A wonderfull litter once again!
Mom is from 2006 and this is her first year of breeding...
Mean weight of the young is 3.5 grams with the smallest one being 2.6 gram. Biggest one 3.7!
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/atratus1jpg.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/atratus2.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/atratus3.jpg

[Stefan-A]

Congratulations again. :)

[gregmonsta]

Those are chunky babies :)

[count dewclaw]

Congrats for another beautiful bunch!

[drache]

atratus - sweet
congrats

[guidofatherof5]

They are great looking little scrubs. You should be proud. When mom starts eating again give her a couple extra pinkies.

[reptileparadise]

Cheers all!
I feel so lucky with healthy clutches!

@steve; will do! And I'll add some chickenheart and smelt! (By the way...she already ate yesterday evening :D)

[Snaky]

Congrats again, Sjoerd :)

[reptileparadise]

Time for a little update?
I cant complain about appetite!
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/3atonce.jpg
No one has had a "real" shed yet, but the little one in the back has much brighter colors then any other in the litter! Do I dare to say...holdback?! (Pics do 'm no justice...)
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/red-and-redder.jpg
And for the atratus, the first time I've seen the youngsters eat. Finally!
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/atratus-eating-for-first-time.jpg

[reptileparadise]

forgot this one...
High red female, belly up :) Day 63 now
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/belly-up.jpg

[Sputnik]

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/3atonce.jpg


What happened next...? :D

They are absolutely beautiful!

[reptileparadise]

The fish ate them all!

haha, I seperated them....and again...and again...

[gregmonsta]

;) looks like they're all coming along nicely :D

[adamanteus]

Looking good, Sjoerd!

[reptileparadise]

Cheers Greg and James,
Pretty happy about the coloration of the "low-reds"...It makes me fantasize about the high reds...And finding the female like that, well, that makes my head spin :D

[wolfess]

Spring came late in my neck of the woods -- it's only been 3 weeks since I had to tell Frodo (my schnauzer gonadis) to take Beelzebel (my 6-year-old outside garter) out of his mouth.

[reptileparadise]

Woohoo! just came home to 9 young atratus! Sadly I also found 3 deformed young and two jellybeans

[adamanteus]

Great news, Sjoerd... shame about the deformed ones, but nine is a good result!

[reptileparadise]

It sure is! You won't hear me complain!
Love the little atratus. Instant beauty in stead of the dull colors my parietalis have when they are born.

[gregmonsta]

Congrats again :D .... quite a baby factory you have there :D

[reptileparadise]

Well, not quite...But much and much better then last year.
All the drama in '08 almost made me sell the entire gartercollection (except for the parietalis)
So yeah, I'm quite happy with the results so far!

[Stefan-A]

Congratulations! :)

[Snake lover 3-25]

aww cute!!!!!

[drache]

congrats Sjoerd
nine is a good number

[reptileparadise]

All snakes are doing fine. Feeding like theres no tomorrow and growing like weeds!
I hope to be sexing them this weekend and select a few holdbacks (At least 1.1 parietalis...)

The big red parietalis female is very restless. She's making me restless!!!
I dug up a good few earthworms earlier this week, but she refused to eat them. She never refuses earthworms...Fingers crossed...

[charles parenteau]

Very nice congradulation!

[reptileparadise]

Heeeeellllllll yeaaaaaahhhh!

just found 58 young in the high red parietalis viv.
More info and pictures soon (tonight...I promise :) )

[Snaky]

Wow, that's an awesome clutch. Congrats with them! :)

[reptileparadise]

Thanks Hans,
I´m reaaaaally happy with ´m!

Pictures!
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/ma-en-jong.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/bergje-parietalis.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/headcount.jpg

Now the dwarfs...midgets...whatever.
Two of m in this litter. Very lively, but I decided to euthanise them.
0.7 grams each. One of them had a bad eye....
On my hand
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/dwergje.jpg

Compared to normal young
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/dwerg-en-normaal.jpg

Eye
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/blinde-dwerg.jpg

[charles parenteau]

Yessir your lucky!!!I can imagine your face when you saw the babies!! :)

Its awesome,58 babies its a huge litter ...In capitivity garter snake tend to have smaller litter than wild specimen of the same size ,and have more incidence ,on 58 babies in total 56 in good shape !!Is she captive bred??? If yes your the king!!!!!!!!!tell us what kind of light you use, food ,everything,Its a success what is your secret???

WE use to see malformation,death babies etc.
Did you fed her with what they feed in the wild??NO rodent???

[reptileparadise]

Thanks Charles,
Whats the secret? I guess its because she did not have young last year. She had her rest.
She's captive bred. I bought her at 6 months old and she's in her 6th year now.
I use a normal heatbulb (25 watt) which creates a heatspot of around 32 celcius. The cooler areas in the viv are around 25 degrees.
Her hibernation this year was pretty cold (colder then I wanted) at 2 degrees celcius for at least one week.
I feed her a variety of fish. Pinky mice once every now and then (I guess twice a month, max.) A few nightcrawlers every now and then are apreciated.
Thats basically it. Nothing special I guess!

*update on the young...The first one ate :) *

[gregmonsta]

Lovely bunch :D nice range of patterns. Will be interesting to see how they'll colour up ;)

[charles parenteau]

I also start with 25 what ,now she is on 40 watts,Im almost in same temperature range 32-27.My snake room was too hot for few weeks because i though my boa constrictor c. was gravid .My eastern is gravid at 90/100.at her first stage of pregnency it was too hot ,more than I should!This my only concern.

I hope to have the same result ,over 50 babies for 6 years old female is very good.By the way I'm still convice rodent are not very good for garter snake,twice a month is ok ,I see It work very well in this case...My friends experiences told me a lot about it.No more birth deffect ,bigger litter,etc.
I think people should learn by their experiences,but also learn from someoone else experience in some case its better.
I want to see the evolution of your babies they are so pretty!!

[reptileparadise]

Thanks Greg and Charles!

@Charles; I agree. There are a lot of breeders that feed nothing then mice. In my opinion this isnt right. Garters arent made for it (but then again, perhaps they arent made for pure fish diets either)

You will see the evolution of the young. My first thought was to hold back the entire litter (except a few ;) ). But with this number I guess its not the best idea, haha

[charles parenteau]

I know that garter snake aren't made only for fish .I keep feeding my garter snakes with worm and my trout jellow ,mixing food is better,at this time of year i pick up toad on a nearby road .I also keep a wild caught orange female ,that i feed only on toad worms and frogs I 'm gonna release her so I keep feeding with Her normal food!

I feed with trout mixture only when worms are no available.at this time of years tey feed mainly on worms ,each day .

I know trout mixture is far too rich for main food source ,I altern.
Too much of something Its like not enough!!

[adamanteus]

This is great news, Sjoerd! That's a huge litter.:)

[drache]

wow - that's huge
congrats, Sjoerd
so how many will you keep?

[reptileparadise]

Probably around a dozen.
I'm already holding back 5 from the low red litter :o

I might reconsider...

[reptileparadise]

The little ones are feeding like pigs! Woohoo!
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/rubbish-eating-pic-high-red-parieta.jpg

I noticed an interesting pattern on some of the low reds. Picture is rubbish and taken just after eating.
from top to bottom; White, orange red...Rainbow garters :P
Yes...I'm holding back 1.1 or so to see if we can improve this...
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/interesting.jpg

[gregmonsta]

They're looking great :D ... congrats on the feeding success ... those low reds look very interesting ... quite similar to pickeringi and concinnus in a way.

[Stefan-A]

Good news! :)

[charles parenteau]

LOt of red they are so beautiful!!

[Snaky]

Great to hear that they are eating that good :)

[count dewclaw]

Congratulations!

[Snake lover 3-25]

so cute! congrats!!:D

[Calift]

I now think garters have the cutest snake babies by far!!!! :D

[reptileparadise]

Thanks all!

You´re right `Calift`... I´ve hatched lots of other colubrids for friends, but none were as cool as garters!

[drache]

they're really beautiful
and nice to see them have a healthy appetite

[reptileparadise]

Thanks Rhea!
Its very nice to see them grow and eat...especially for one of our british members ;)

Today my snakeseason has ended.
I just came home from an early...very early...herping trip (nothing found) and saw a few T. c. cyrtopsis crawling around.
12 healthy young of which the smallest (1) is 1.7 grams and the biggest one is 5.4 grams. Smaller then last year, but all alive and kickin'!
Pictures will follow offcourse!

[drache]

cool
cyrtopsis
congrats

[Snaky]

Nice, congrats again Sjoerd:)

[reptileparadise]

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Thamfriends/99cyrtopsis-one-day-old-klein.jpg

[gregmonsta]

Cute as a button :D

[reptileparadise]

A `low red` young. Getting pretty big already and has a really neat olive color!
Crap picture...I know. I need to spend some time practicing natural light shots...
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/first-succes.jpg

And the hig reds are getting into shed. The first two have shed...
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/high-red-first-shed-1.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/high-red-first-shed-2.jpg

[Stefan-A]

Very nice. :) As soon as I have space for another two or three full-size enclosures, I'm going to get a bunch of parietalis. ;)

[drache]

they are very pretty

[gregmonsta]

Even those 'low' reds have beatiful colouration :D very nice.

[reptileparadise]

Very nice. :) As soon as I have space for another two or three full-size enclosures, I'm going to get a bunch of parietalis. ;)

Thanks...I can highly reconmend them!

Thanks Rhea and Greg.
:)

[Mommy2many]

What kind of fish were you feeding the scrubs?

[charles parenteau]

Omg they are so cute!very red ...

[reptileparadise]

Thanks,
In the picture they are feeding on Coalfish/Pollack. Enriched with calcium supplements.

took some pictures again today...Photo's do m no justice. They look sooooo much better in real life...
3 weeks old and just had its first shed
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/High-red-first-shed-nice-one.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/medium-high-red-male.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/nice-high-red-female.jpg

2 months (and 3 days) old and looking good.
low red female
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/low-red-very-nice-female.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/Kousebanden/very-nice-low-red-female.jpg

[gregmonsta]

That 'low' red looks good enough to me :D ... my male only has red on the line above the ventrals .... the dorsal line is completely black :rolleyes: I might end up with one of your not so 'low' reds after all :D

[reptileparadise]

:D
Is it snakeday yet? *checks calender*
...
Is it snakeday yet? *checks calender again*
...
Is it snakeday yet? *check calender and clock*

haha, cheers mate. I'm pretty pleased with them, but natural light makes them look sooooooo much better!

[gregmonsta]

:D
Is it snakeday yet? *checks calender*
...
Is it snakeday yet? *checks calender again*
...
Is it snakeday yet? *check calender and clock*

haha, cheers mate. I'm pretty pleased with them, but natural light makes them look sooooooo much better!

Ahem :rolleyes: .... :o I've been checkeing the website for the coach bookings once a day.

[charles parenteau]

I know its hard to take pictures of their real color ,but its easy to see how beautiful they are!!High red.

[count dewclaw]

Very pretty young ones!

[reptileparadise]

Thanks!
13 are still picky eaters. They love worms, but when fish comes in they skip a meal (two of 'm eat everthing that looks remotely edible)

[reptileparadise]

I had another go at natural light pictures...Still not happy with them (The pictures that is :) )

This one is okay I guess
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/atratus-buiten.jpg

This one sucks
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/hoogrood.jpg

Okay I guess?
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s285/reptile-paradise/pickieparie.jpg

I might try to take pictures on some natural bedding in stead of my hand. It seems that the lightness of my hand makes it more difficult for my camera to show the true colors of the animals. I can flash (and I did with these pictures) but that washes out the colors...
Photography can be hard sometimes :D

[guidofatherof5]

The one you say "sucks" looks like the stuff I take all the time. Coming from you that makes me feel pretty good about my photos.:D

I think they look great. Your subject matter is beautiful in any light.:)

[gregmonsta]

They look fine to me :D

[adamanteus]

I like the last one, in the leaf litter.