Hibernating

[bkhuff1s]

Does anyone have pictures and detailed information on how they hibernate thier garters? I'm looking to do this right, and I wont unless I'm confident that they will live through the experience. :)

[charles parenteau]

My 2 years old eastern female stop eating 2 weeks ago and she is always in her water bowl and there is no mites so this is a good sign that she is ready for cooling then for hibernation.
I wanted to give her a boost for few months but she decide other way.
For a week she is on the floor next to my cooling room at nearly 20 celcius.I will probably hibernate her until january,I have few frogs in the fridge and I will catch earth worms for the winter season .
She is definitely too small to breed I will wait 2011!!!

Huge water bowl is needed because most of my eastern stay under water all the time during hibernation.Most hibernaculum have water on the bottom.
The dorsal strippe was green but turn white few shed ago,The red is apple red !!!!I hope to reproduce this garter snake so much.
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/parenteau/P1020324.jpg
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/parenteau/P1020320.jpg

[Odie]

That is a good looking snake :cool:

[ConcinusMan]

I just happen to have a room in my house that is friggen freezin' (by human standards). I brumate garters in that room, in the winter, making sure they stay somewhere between 50-60 degrees and turn off all their lights/heat and only ambient natural light from a window is coming in, and shut the room off from the rest of the house. There they stay for 3-4 months. Making sure they always have fresh water and 50-70% humidity. That's all I ever did. And I made sure to increase light/heat gradually over 2-3 weeks. Once up into the 70's, pairs kept together only had one thing on their minds - SEX! No sense in offering food at that time. They eat after successfully breeding usually. Never lost an adult like that. Lost a neonate or two, but never an adult.