Weight question ...

[Charis]

I know snakes grow at different speeds, so probably can't give me a definite answer, but your opinion would be appreciated. The pickeringi with the problem eye, Tikki, was weighed on 9/25/09 & was 3 grams, I weighed her again on 11/19/09 & she weighed 4 grams. Is that a good growth rate? Thanks!

[guidofatherof5]

I think at any point a gain in weight should be looked upon as a good thing. Considering your snake has been fighting an infection I would say your doing fine.
With your situation as long as Tikki isn't losing weight I would be happy.
Keep up the good work.:)

[Charis]

Thanks for your reply. I was slightly disappointed when I weighed her, I would of guessed her at 5 grams. But I got thinking that even though it's only one gram, that's only a bit less than half her original body weight. I just wanted a few other opinions on it as well, though. I'm hoping she'll go into shed here soon, they are both getting really dull, the male a bit more than her & the male's eyes just went cloudy yesterday.

[guidofatherof5]

I'm hoping she'll go into shed here soon, they are both getting really dull, the male a bit more than her & the male's eyes just went cloudy yesterday.

Shortly(5-10 days) after the blue eyes return to normal you should get a shed from the male. Then you'll have a bright, clean new snake;)

[ConcinusMan]

So happy to hear that Tikki is hanging in there! congrats. Nice job.

[Charis]

Rikki shed today! Had to help him with the last inch of his tail, but other than that it was a good shed. He's nice & bright now. Both of them just got done stuffing themselves on guppies tonight.

[guidofatherof5]

I take it both eye caps came off without any difficulty?
If they are shedding, they are growing and that's a great sign. You're doing a wonderful job.
I hope they have many more sheds in their futures.

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, listen to guido. While it's not to shabby to hear that the shed went well, and you only had trouble with the tail, better check the skin, and/or check the eyes. Make darn sure that the eye caps came off. It can cause serious problems if they didn't come off.

[Charis]

Yeah, I'm real paranoid about the eye caps, it's the first thing I check when anyone sheds & then tail tips after that. I'm actually somewhat dreading when Tikki sheds, as it's probably likely she'll have problems getting the shed off her face, with her eye the way it is. I'll be pulling out all of the tricks to help just as soon as her eye goes cloudy!

[guidofatherof5]

Yeah, I'm real paranoid about the eye caps, it's the first thing I check when anyone sheds & then tail tips after that. I'm actually somewhat dreading when Tikki sheds, as it's probably likely she'll have problems getting the shed off her face, with her eye the way it is. I'll be pulling out all of the tricks to help just as soon as her eye goes cloudy!

Don't get too aggressive then. My advice would be to put her in a shed box 4-6 days after her eyes have gone back to normal. http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husbandry/5014-cheap-shed-box.html (http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husbandry/5014-cheap-shed-box.html) Tikki may surprise you and give you a complete shed without your help.

[drache]

I'll be pulling out all of the tricks to help just as soon as her eye goes cloudy!
don't help too much - you don't want to be pulling off stuff that's not ready

[Charis]

Yeah, I meant all the tricks for upping the humidity, our house is usually quite dry. Should have made that clear. ;~) I will probably put a humid hide in too, thanks guido for the link!

[Charis]

Well, Tikki is most definitely in shed. Hopefully it will come off with no problems. Did put a humid hide in with her.

[guidofatherof5]

Great. Keep us informed as to how it goes. Hoping for the best.
Tikki's a special snake. A real fighter.

[Charis]

Tikki shed today! She had a little trouble with the body, but got her eye caps off by herself, yay! She did use the humid hide too.

[guidofatherof5]

Great news. Good job, Tikki:)

[Charis]

Thought I'd get some input on & update the progress of Rikki, since he hasn't got much mention from me. I weighed Rikki on 11/19/09 & he was 3 grams. He looked like he'd put on quite a bit of weight in the last two weeks, so weighed him on the 20th of this month & he is up to 6 grams now. Is that a fairly normal growth rate? Also weighed Tikki at the same time & she is still holding at 4 grams. But I'm hoping to maybe be able to bulk her up a bit more now, since my Grandpa just gave us a bunch of trout today. They both love trout, but I hadn't been able to get any for awhile. Rikki will pack away the tilapia, but Tikki will only eat a little of it.

[drache]

sounds good - you're taking great care of them
hm - fresh trout - yum

[wadih]

The pickeringi with the problem eye, Tikki, was weighed on 9/25/09 & was 3 grams, I weighed her again on 11/19/09 & she weighed 4 grams.

My knowledge in garters is not good enough to talk in this subject; however, as guidofatherof5 said gaining weight is always good.
However, I want to know how you are measuring the weight of the snake this accurate. Are you using a food digital scale or something more accurate like gold scale? As I know it is not easy at all to detect a 1 gram variation specially in a moving snake.
I will be glad if you can just tell me what method you are using... In the food scale i am using (not even digital) I barely can tell the 20-30 grams diffrence :D

[Charis]

It is a digital food scale, the max weight on it is 13 lbs, the higher one will go, the less accurate it is on lower weights. This one is supposed to be a really good scale for what it is, but it isn't a jewerly scale, like you said, so I'm sure at the gram stage it is probably not a 100% accurate.

[ConcinusMan]

For only $30 I picked up a digital scale with a nice large tray (big enough for small garters) that is accurate to within 1/10 of a gram. Can be set to oz, grains, and carats too.