only from texas lol

[Faunaofthenorth]

ok...so i have, well i should say have had, a male texas garter snake for 4 years now, and where i live which is in the extreme cold for 8 months of the year, i usually do not have a snake for this long, but....i may have found a solution for the longevity of garter snakes in captivity...calorie cutting, i noticed that when i fed him mutliple times a week, or once a week, he would get sick more often then if i fed him every other week, i am not dumb and would never starve any animal, its just that i once read in the garter snake book by rossman that he had success with this as well, i just never thought it really worked, but he is extremly healthy and is doing great the way i am keeping him now hmm its just interesting to me.

[guidofatherof5]

What do you mean by sick? Would you please explain?

[stripe&houdini]

Define "extreme cold"

[mustang]

us texans expeirence "wierd weather" itll be in the teens in the mornin and by noon ittl be in the triple digits....sometimes mainly around febuary it stays in the teens...

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

what do you mean by "get sick"????

they should not be getting sick even when fed multiple times a week! Possibly you were overfeeding him during those multiple-per-week feedings? I personally would never make my garters wait 2 weeks in-between meals.... that sounds like enough to get by on, but not really allowing for much growth or extra boosts of energy. but to each his own, I suppose. Garters are naturally opportunistic eaters and will eat just about anything they catch in the wild. I somehow see wild garter snakes eating multiple catches per week, since they are active hunters and not sit-and-wait snakes. Smaller, more frequent meals not only keep my snakes feeling content and full but is easier on their digestion. Stuffing them silly every 3 or 4 days would definitely be ill-advised though. I am curious about the "getting sick" thing though. He should not have been regurgitating at all.

The following is pure specculation, depending on if "getting sick" means he was vomiting, but possibly one time, he over-ate a bit and had a reguritation. If you had been feeding him multiple times a week and did not wait a 2-3 week period after the first regurgitation, the chances that subsequent meals would be vomited repeatedly are very high, because they need time to regenerate the lost beneficial bacteria and to restore order in the digestive tract after a regurgitation.

[wadih]

This is a really strange post... I would agree with you if you meant that the snake activity is proportional with temperature (and/or) with food consumption. However, I do not think it is related to sickness by any means...
I think one of the forum moderators can give precise information about this much better than I can do (or even know) but I really doubt any relation between food and sickness. Unless you are feeding them bad food :D (If they will ever accept that)

[Faunaofthenorth]

srry i havent been on here in a while i mainly had problems with respiratory infections with previous snakes, even though i kept the enclosures as clean as possible and right humidity, etc... it just was weird i guess, and i meant sickness as problems, etc... like i had a huge female baby albino checkered garter snake and it was the healthiest ive had in years or so i thought but it also passed away, and same thing happened with my melanistic mexican garter snake, which one night seemed fine then the next day it was petrified or so to say, i could have literally killed a deer with it lol but anyways i dont know what the deal is because when i received the texas garter, he came misplaced in a shipment of indonesian garter snakes even though they arent really garter snaked, but i immediately picked him out, and said hmm thats interesting, and he was already sick, and i mean wheezing, thin, vomitting, and mild seizures, which i thought he was for sure a gonner, at the pet store they sent too many indonesian garters and most of them dies from various causes, and well he pulled through, but im telling you he does great on little feeding, now i DO NOT starve him thats for sure, i would never do that, but yea, and he seems to choose rodents more so over any other prey item ive introduced, which may also be a factor, who knows but hes my favorite for ive never had a snake for over 4 years straight and he still seems young and strong, and extreme cold as in -20 without wind chill, that is usually average in the middle of winter, and a lot of the prey items are unavailable during those times, but he seems to have an extreme form of metabolism ir maybe i just have an overactive imagination which i wouldnt put it passed me lol

[Kelan]

I don't understand what the amount of food could have to do with how present the respitory infection is. You mentioned humidity and I don't recommend adding any moisture to the air for him...keeping it dry might help to dry out his infection. As long as he has access to water he won't dry out. lol
Good luck!


us texans expeirence "wierd weather" itll be in the teens in the mornin and by noon ittl be in the triple digits....sometimes mainly around febuary it stays in the teens...
What part of Texas you in!?? lol Or what kind of thermometer do you have?

[Faunaofthenorth]

oh thats no problem, the enclosure is not problem, i was only referencing the frequency of problems occurring which as many of you, but not all, and not most have experienced random problems and deaths, when you were certain the animals were in prime health. That is what i meant actually, and it seems that calorie restriction has proven to be somewhat benefecial when moderated at a safe level, man he's fesity, i went to change the water and he pretty much launched himself into the air from accross the 40 gallon wide enclosure just to latch on to betwen my index and middle fingers, he chewed for at least 3 minutes before i got him to let go, man hes a feisty little bugger, and to top that, my large eastern female seems to rely heavily on sight for catching prey as she absolutely loves rodents, and she mistook my finger as a pinky mouse or something to that effect, and she also latched on, man it seems i never get a break while changing the water haha oh well, its all fun