Eastern garter piccy

[flickerfriend]

Here's another pic my dad took today while i was feeding. i hope you can tell me ifs its a fat male/female or a gravid female :)
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_AbF-07hNvSk/TGrgoEvV2_I/AAAAAAAACVA/lg8YQ-Pbrc4/s400/HPIM3913.JPG

[ConcinusMan]

At first glance it does appear to be a gravid female, and she's not only fat because she's gravid. She also appears to be very well fed. Don't over do it now.;)

[flickerfriend]

Woo-hoo! shes a gravid girl! what should i do to take care of her? at the moment i have no heat lamps should that be somthing she needs to survive? and what should i name her?

[i_heart_sneakie_snakes]

She is beautiful :) Is she friendly??

[flickerfriend]

She is beautiful :) Is she friendly??
Nope when i cought her she bit me twice later that day. when she was in a cage she was striking at me and my cousins.

[i_heart_sneakie_snakes]

Nope when i cought her she bit me twice later that day. when she was in a cage she was striking at me and my cousins.

Yikes!!! I have never been bit by a garter, but it seems like it would be unnerving. Maybe her babies will be more calm :)

[guidofatherof5]

Yikes!!! I have never been bit by a garter, but it seems like it would be unnerving. Maybe her babies will be more calm :)


What are you waiting for.
Cover your fingers in worm slime and go for it.
We need another club member.:D

[ConcinusMan]

Hey now, don't go jumping to conclusions. I said at first glance she does appear gravid but I can't tell from one picture of course, but I would say she's definitely a female.

[kibakiba]

Yikes!!! I have never been bit by a garter, but it seems like it would be unnerving. Maybe her babies will be more calm :)


It feels like a needle prick in a way. If they hang on it really hurts but if they just bite and let go it might make you bleed but it... I don't know how to explain it. It feels kind of like scraping your hand with rough sand paper.

[i_heart_sneakie_snakes]

I have known people who have been biten by Garters. I always figured the pain wouldn't be bad, but that the suprise would get me. I am super jumpy. My husband scares me all the time, even if I know he is there he can scare me!!!

[kibakiba]

Oh,I totally understand that. My boyfriend is long distance right now but he scares me easily still ;) I jumped a little when I first got bit, but I knew not to jerk in case of hurting the snake, and this was Snakey when he was a baby ;)

[gartermorphs]

i still havent been bit and ive been keeping garters for almost 8 years now ive never been bit by any type of snake for that matter so it might not happen for a while I heart sneakie snakes

[guidofatherof5]

i still havent been bit(YET) and ive been keeping garters for almost 8 years now ive never been bit by any type of snake for that matter so it might not happen for a while I heart sneakie snakes

Sorry, I had to edit your post to make it more realistic:D

[ConcinusMan]

Oh, I've been bit plenty of times but it's rare with my concinnus (actually, the adults I have right now have never bitten me). One of the babies bit me the day after it was born though.

Plenty of hostile northwesterns though, that like to bite when you first catch them.

[kibakiba]

I know north westerns can be pretty hostile, I've been catching them since I was a kid. They all hissed and struck at me as if I would care and run away... Only made me try to grab them even more ;) Silly snakes.

[Mommy2many]

What are you waiting for.
Cover your fingers in worm slime and go for it.
We need another club member.:D


My babies don't bite!

[Mommy2many]

No pain really with the garter bites. Sometimes they like to "chew" though:D

[gartermorphs]

Sorry, I had to edit your post to make it more realistic:D

its fine:D im still waiting to get tagged one of these days! i actually almost got bit by a black ratsnake i was saving and putting on the side of the rode today it was 5feet 2 in long! the ungrateful thing!lol

[ConcinusMan]

Got bit by a 7 foot gopher snake that I tried to catch. I was only 14 at the time. The damage was mostly due to my jerking back. Ripped me wide open. needed 4 stitches!

those teeth are just tiny needles meant for gripping. Snake bites don't really hurt, it's mostly a psychological "ouch!" like when shannon got bit by her rat snake in her snakeroom tour video. It doesn't really hurt, but the reaction sometimes is still "ouch!". Amy bit me out of feeding response one time and It surprised me and I actually said "ouch!" and reacted as though I just touched a hot object. Funny thing is, it actually didn't hurt at all. Didn't even break the skin.:cool:

Most that ever happens usually is that those razor sharp needle teeth puncture and cause tiny drops of blood but you don't really feel it since they are so sharp.

ALWAYS disinfect a bite when it punctures the skin. Lots of bacteria and enzymes in the saliva of any snake. Should be washed and disinfected right away if the skin is broken.

[guidofatherof5]

ALWAYS disinfect a bite when it punctures the skin. Lots of bacteria and enzymes in the saliva of any snake. Should be washed and disinfected right away if the skin is broken.

So you say:D I don't. This way I build up an immunity.
It makes me more at one with my snakes:D

OK, you're right:)

[Snakers]

So you say:D I don't. This way I build up an immunity.
It makes me more at one with my snakes:D

OK, you're right:)
Bill Haast Article (http://www.cobras.org/article.htm)
long but to get to the point..the guy is supposedly immune

[ConcinusMan]

I'm just sayin'. A particularly slimy wet garter-saliva bite that breaks the skin... it's not a bad idea to at least wash thoroughly asap.

As you grow up, and get the flu a few times, you build immunity to those strains, and similar strains. But still, look what you had to go through:rolleyes:

Simply washing with soap and water, letting it "bleed out" if it's a bleeding wound, and disinfecting is not a bad idea. Especially since the worst garter bites I've had were from slobbering, drooling , hungry concinnus eating nasty frogs, fish, tadpoles or worms.:rolleyes:

It wasn't their fault. I mean, my hand smelled and looked vaguely like food. and they were hungry!:cool:

I also got bit severely by T. elegans caught near some rivers in N. California. had a bad reaction. Itching, swelling, immediate infection.. etc...

[kibakiba]

I'm allergic to garter snake saliva actually, so when I first caught Snakey and didn't feed him right... He big me and twisted, chewed, etc... And he broke the skin. Not enough for blood but enough to get his saliva on the wound. Despite disinfecting it my hand swelled up like a balloon. I even have a scar from it, which is odd since it wasn't deep or anything. Some people might have stopped owning garters with such a reaction but I was in love with Snakey despite him nearly making my hand fall off.

[ConcinusMan]

It does happen (the reaction) and sometimes, only once. Don't be afraid of getting bit again like that. The reaction often never happens again. Seriously.

Hand falling off.. you make me laugh.:D

Yes, the reaction can be severe but is usually short-lived. It should be treated as any other animal bite; serious. However, you now have antibodies to the agent, or agents that caused the reaction. Next time, (if there is one) it shouldn't be nearly as severe, or you may have no reaction at all.

[kibakiba]

Well when he bit me that night when he was harassing Mama while she was eating my hand swelled up again and was sore for a few days. I didnt think he even broke the skin that time but, you know. The first time when it was swollen it hurt to move and was slightly purple and took a week to go away, the second time I got minor swelling and a little redness on my hand and it was sore, it lasted for 5 days at the most. I wouldn't care if I did get bit again. It's just part of my job as a pet to my garter snakes, you know.

[ConcinusMan]

That sounds distinctly like a severe reaction to the enzymes in the saliva. Enzymes start the digestive process and sort of start pre-digesting the food but they can also serve to subdue prey, sort of like venom. When a snake is eating, there is quite a bit of saliva, and the enzyme activity and quantity in the saliva is particularly high. Much more so than say, a defensive bite when the snake is not eating a meal.

[kibakiba]

Yeah, both times he bit me and broke the skin I believe he thought of my hand as being food. First time was a week or 2 after I caught him when I thought they ate bugs ;) He held on for a good 10 minutes, I had to hold his head under the faucet for a bit. I know I shouldn't ever do that but at the time after 10 minutes my had WAS starting to swell already and I was really scared. The second time... I smelt like a worm sandwich to him :D

[gartermorphs]

kibakiba im just saying as im a person withe severe allergies id be careful when you get bit because just as with a bee sting its not the first or second time you get stung its the third or fourth that you have a anafalatic reaction.

[kibakiba]

I am careful :) I dis infect it as quickly as possible and keep an eye on it. It's off topic sort of, but I have a spider bite and I'm seriously allergic to them but I've been keeping witch hazel on it and keeping it clean... I'm getting a bit of my skin coming off, though :( I might have to go to the hospital because of it if it gets worse. Luckily it's smaller today and less painful. We have mutant spiders here according to my boyfriend ;) I tend to spider bites more vigorously since I can die from them and with a snake bite I get swelling and soreness/redness. But either way I'm careful not to scare my snakes or get worms on me. Haha.

[ConcinusMan]

The thing with spider bites, even if they are from spiders that are not particularly dangerous, is, they get infected very easily. Many of them are infested with staph and it gets in the wound and causes a serious infection. If it is red and inflamed, painful, and swollen you have no time to waste. See a Dr. right away. I nearly lost a finger in less than 3 days after being bit. The infection was that serious. The spider was not dangerous, and the venom mild, but the infection... OMG. The finger had to be cut wide open, kept open, and packed with iodine strips twice daily. Not fun.

[kibakiba]

Ewwww. The swelling is going down now, and I have a friend who lived near me and did medical training on spider bites and the like. Everything he's told me has happened and, like you said, to get my behind to the doctor if its read and swollen. It's still painful, but it's "open" and raw so it hurts like a son of a bee sting if it gets touched.

[ConcinusMan]

Open and raw... ew.. sounds like a result of some nasty flesh-dissolving venom. yeah, I'd see a Dr. soon if I were you. If fever and achy joints set in, it's particularly urgent. Mine was more like a huge lump filled with cottage cheese that kept growing and turned purple.

[kibakiba]

Ewwwwwwww. My friend thinks that I got bit by a wolf spider, which are actually all too commonly found... In my house. I wouldnt be surprised. He did say it was normal for it to be that way especially since... Well it was small at first and thought it might be a pimple on my leg.. Lol. And because the swelling has gone down a lot so the stretched skin is falling off. I did have a bad fever today but I'm sick with a stomach bug, too. I get sick very easily ;)

[drache]

I've not been bitten by a spider yet

but this:

No pain really with the garter bites. Sometimes they like to "chew" though:Dis not entirely true when you're talking 40 inches of garter, pissed, and meaning business
okay, so it's not big pain like a chainsaw accident, but it's definitely an "ouch! expletive!" sort of thing
of course it's nothing compared to what a bunny can do to you

[Snakeknot]

Take a load at what "Roadie" did to me before I released him! This was his farewell kiss on the hand to me. And he was only 16 inches! Yes, it hurt, yes it bled, no I didn't have a reaction to it it any way whatsoever. So no bragging rights there!

Yes, I cleaned it well and it stopped bleeding right away. And I'm on blood thinners to treat my chronic migraines!

Devon

[guidofatherof5]

Take a load at what "Roadie" did to me before I released him! This was his farewell kiss on the hand to me. And he was only 16 inches! Yes, it hurt, yes it bled, no I didn't have a reaction to it it any way whatsoever. So no bragging rights there!

Yes, I cleaned it well and it stopped bleeding right away. And I'm on blood thinners to treat my chronic migraines!

Devon

Looks like Roadie was getting a little nourishment for the road.:D