A couple of pics...

[EasternGirl]

Since everyone else is doing it...

Here are a couple of pics of Selena enjoying some worms and a pic of her home...

If she ever lets me...I'll get some better pics of her.

[guidofatherof5]

Selena's looking good.

[ConcinusMan]

No, I think she looks ill and you're starving her.:rolleyes:

Just kidding!:p She looks great.

[EasternGirl]

Thanks...Steve. I was reading your observations today and they were so interesting...I sat there for an hour, I couldn't stop reading!

I think animals can feel love for humans and each other. Some animals mate for life and many animals who live together experience loss when a mate dies...sometimes the living mate will die shortly thereafter. I think this tells us something.

[ConcinusMan]

You forget that those radixes of Steve's are special. They were trained by the U.S. govt. They are super mind-control ninja radixes and Steve has succumbed to their powers. He is their slave. They only tricked him into loving them, and they tricked him into thinking they love him.:p

[Stefan-A]

You forget that those radixes of Steve's are special. They were trained by the U.S. govt. They are super mind-control ninja radixes and Steve has succumbed to their powers. He is their slave. They only tricked him into loving them, and they tricked him into thinking they love him.:p
They're Goa'uld.

[EasternGirl]

Hey you guys...my father has decided that I am insane because I talk to my snake. I guess we all better call the men with the little white coats to come and get us! I asked him if it was just talking to the snake that makes me insane...or should I stop talking to the dog and the cats as well?

[EasternGirl]

Selena is so funny. She kept coming out of her hide and looking for me...so I decided to try to feed her with the tweezers again. Of course she kept backing away into her hide. She finally decided to poke her head out to see what was going on...but the worm kept falling off the tweezers. I removed the worm because it had substrate all over it...and she came out and started looking all over for the worm. I decided I better give her one so she wouldn't think I was the person that "takes away" her food. I put her in her feeding cage with some cut up worms on a dish. She slid over them about ten times...all she cared about was trying to get out of the little cage. I figured she was getting stressed, and she already ate today...so I put her back in her home. As soon as she got in there, she started looking all over for the worm again! Silly Selena...

[kibakiba]

I talk to my snakes all the time. My mom thinks I'm insane too, but she talks to our dog as if she were replying to her. I personally believe the snakes do try to communicate with you. Their voices are just too faint. Mama even tried to whisper in my ear. She stuck her head in my ear. :D While I was getting the stuck shed off of Squirt he seemed to calm down a bit more when I was talking to him than when I wasn't.

[EasternGirl]

Yeah...if I go to Selena's cage and she is sleeping under her bedding...if I call to her, she pops her head out at me. Perhaps she can't hear...maybe it's just the vibrations...but she does look at me when I talk to her. My father talks to our dog and our cats all the time...so whatever.

[kibakiba]

Yeah, they don't have ears but they can sense the vibrations. When I talk to Mama she lays on my chest and throat, the vibrations are probably the strongest there. She's a big lovable blob of a snake. ;)

[EasternGirl]

I just opened Selena's enclosure and placed my hands in her bedding. It took her a while, but she came up and slid across my hand. She also came closer and lifted up her face to look at me. Yay!

[kibakiba]

You're doing a great job at getting her used to you. :)

[EasternGirl]

Thanks! She comes out of hiding now when I go up to her enclosure...she will come up as close as she can and just stare at me. We could sit there and just look at each other for hours if I didn't have other things to do! She ate a whole bunch of worms today and then looked for more! She is becoming quite the little piggy snake!

It is obvious that she knows who I am and can tell the difference between me and other people. My son's father was over today...and he went up to the enclosure to see her...she saw him and drew back and hid. After he left and she saw that it was just me there, she came back out. She also ate in front of me today.

[gregmonsta]

You're doing all the right things ;). It's rewarding to earn their trust :D

[EasternGirl]

Well...she is definitely a girl...she can't figure out what she wants! This morning she decided she was comfortable with me...she ate in front of me and spent a lot of time looking at me closely through the glass. Then this afternoon, she decided she was terrified of me again...I opened her enclosure for some bonding time, and she kept freaking out and hiding...she even decided she was going to try to make a break for it. I tried to explain to her that escaping means one of two destinies....dying somewhere from starvation in my house, or death by cat...neither which should appeal to her, so her home might be the best place for her. She didn't seem to understand my reasoning...lol. Anyway, as usual, as soon as I put the lid to her enclosure back on...she popped out bravely looking for me! Silly girl!

[kibakiba]

Mama can be like that sometimes. I let her sleep in my bra while I was working and she pooped in it and I didn't realize it at the time, but then she started freaking out and not wanting to be held. She only does stuff like that when she knows she'd be in trouble.

[EasternGirl]

Lol...Selena decided she was terrified of me again tonight. I opened her enclosure and sat on the floor with my hand in her bedding, trying to pet her and get her to let me hold her. She just kept freaking out and slithering away as fast as she could...and jumping up trying to escape!

[kibakiba]

Snap will jump sometimes, especially if you are holding her. It's amazing how something without any legs can jump so high. ;)

[EasternGirl]

Right? It's really funny to watch Selena attempt to "jump" out of her cage. She also did the funniest thing last night...she kept standing up...I'm sure you know what I mean...getting herself to the highest point in her enclosure and then getting herself as vertical as possible, and then trying to wedge her face through the metal grates on the top of the cage....then she would fall and flop all over...then go around the bottom of the enclosure, back up to the top, and do it again! She looked so pathetic but I couldn't help laughing!

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah...if I go to Selena's cage and she is sleeping under her bedding...if I call to her, she pops her head out at me. Perhaps she can't hear...maybe it's just the vibrations...but she does look at me when I talk to her. My father talks to our dog and our cats all the time...so whatever.

They can hear you. Their hearing isn't very acute since they don't have an outer ear, but they do have an inner ear beneath their skull. Any sound that is intense enough to make it through the skin and into the skull bone, is heard. Don't expect them to come running when you call their name, and don't expect them to even know their name though. Unlike a dog or a cat, I don't believe that snakes desire to please their owners. It just happens by accident.:p

[EasternGirl]

She does pop her head out of wherever she is hiding if I call to her. Maybe she is not truly responding to me, per se, but she is responding.

[kibakiba]

Snap and Ember sometimes do that, it usually happens if I haven't fed them in a day or two, but they climb onto the tree and do that and fall from a bit higher. After falling they usually sit there like "whoa... what just happened?"

[EasternGirl]

Chantel...I went to Petsmart today. What a huge store! They had everything. I got the 20 gallon critter cage, the carefresh...(in purple, my fav color!), some plants, and some wood. Selena has an awesome enclosure now...I posted a new thread with pics. Thanks so much for your help!

Richard...thank you too for your help with all of the the enclosure info! Hopefully, I will get the lighting set up next. Your video helped me a lot in setting up Selena's enclosure.

Thanks to everyone!

[ConcinusMan]

Make sure everything is secure and stable. Wouldn't want her to knock something over and get pinned. I can get away with stacking that chunk of wood on top of the caves only because it's mopani wood. It's the heaviest, densest wood known to man, and the snakes are too little to knock it over or push it. Be careful how you place heavy objects in her enclosure.(if you do at all)

I wouldn't stack it like that if the snakes were much bigger than they are. They're still very small and too weak to push or knock it over. Don't underestimate their strength.;)

[EasternGirl]

Thanks. Yes, I am very careful about arranging things so that she can't get stuck behind them or under them...and not putting anything in that I feel she could knock down. I'm a big worrier so I am probably even more careful than I should be. Over-protective mother type!

[erinlovessnakes]

Since everyone else is doing it...

Here are a couple of pics of Selena enjoying some worms and a pic of her home...

If she ever lets me...I'll get some better pics of her.
i like the snake eating a piece of a worm

[EasternGirl]

Thanks! I love to watch her eat...it fascinates me. Unfortunately, she likes to eat very privately. She will hide, wait for me to leave the room, snatch a bunch of worms or pinkies quickly like a little pigsnake, and then go back to hide. I haven't been able to watch her eat more that a couple of times...and the fact that I could get pics is a miracle.

[ConcinusMan]

Stop doing that. You're sending the message that the snake is in charge and doesn't need you to get what she needs. Wait she's good and hungry, and in time, she'll come to you and eat from your fingers! (or tongs)

If you keep feeding her from a dish, when you're not there, she won't have to learn to trust you.;)

[EasternGirl]

But she hides all of the time and if I put tweezers with food in her enclosure, she gets freaked out and hides and won't come out. So how am I supposed to do that?

[kibakiba]

It takes a lot of patience, they will get used to you on their own time. If I were you, I'd use the tweezers with the food on them and hold them there until she comes out. I had to do that sometimes with Squirt. It took about 5 minutes. Maybe if she doesn't take it when you do that, after 5 minutes then put it in a dish and try again the next day, it might help her get used to you being around when she's eating.

[ConcinusMan]

When she's in her hide, you can make sure she's aware that your hand is in there, the present food at the opening. If she's really hungry, she mite bite it and retreat. If not, keep trying. Once she starts doing that, try coaxing her out a little bit. If you can get her to feed like that, eventually she'll be coming out to your hand when she's hungry.

Just do it in baby steps. It could take months for her to come to trust you and think of your hand as the provider. Just be persistent and have patience.

Once you have little snakeys coming out of their hides, and "running" over to greet you, you'll realize how worthwhile the effort was.

[EasternGirl]

Okay...well I'll try that. I tried putting her in her feeding cage today and holding the worm on tweezers and she just got really freaked out and kept trying to escape. I didn't want to stress her out anymore, so I put her back in her enclosure. I'll try the baby steps. The problem with her new enclosure is that there are so many places for her to hide...under the substrate, in the plants, etc., that I can't find her half the time. Then I have to look for her and that scares her. If she is out and about and I open the enclosure, she hides. I guess it is just going to take a lot of time.

[guidofatherof5]

Hold off on feeding her for a few days. Then when you get in she'll smell the food and come to you.
Don't worry about her being hungry. Garters go without food for long stretches of time in the wild so a few days even a week is no big deal.
Hunger is a great motivator.

[kibakiba]

I agree with Steve, Squirt was a shy eater and he couldn't stand being around me. Any time I checked on him or to put some wiggly worms in his dish, he'd musk and hide. I held off on feeding him for a week (it was cold) and put a worm on the tweezers and he took it, and after a couple weeks he's still a little skittish, but he'll come up to me and look for food now.

[EasternGirl]

She knows how to get to me! She comes right up to my face through the tank and opens her mouth like "Feed me lady...I'm starving!"...with this look on her face. But I'm going to try what you guys said and hold off. I will not let the snake use her mind control on me...I am in control...I am in control...

Lol...

[guidofatherof5]

Be strong.
In the end you will learn "resistance is futile":D

[kibakiba]

Mama does that too. She's gotten a hold of my hand before, she didn't bite down hard but she was looking up at me as if she were saying "go fetch me a pinkie right now or I will bite you harder" of course, I did what she said. ;)

[guidofatherof5]

Mama does that too. She's gotten a hold of my hand before, she didn't bite down hard but she was looking up at me as if she were saying "go fetch me a pinkie right now or I will bite you harder" of course, I did what she said. ;)

It must be a universal garter snake move.
Many of my big radixes will do the same thing.
You nailed it.
They look at you and you know exactly what they want.:D

[kibakiba]

For you, Steve, it's just the mind control... ;) :D

[gregmonsta]

I got a few little nibbles yesterday ;). I was feeding my girls. Suzy had already been her gutsy self hanging out of the enclosure. I went in with the tweezers to give Panama a chunk of Salmon and I felt my little finger being mouthed five or six times in quick succession. I looked over to see Suzy looking over at me as if to say "Oi!!! Attention! .... Me .... Food ..... My magical silver foodgivers!!!"

[kibakiba]

Mama has started doing that since she's started eating as if she were starving every other day. When I was feeding Snakey some left over pinkie chunks she went ahead and bit me. Of course, just the way she was looking at me was "give me that pinkie chunk RIGHT now..." She is little miss attitude.

[guidofatherof5]

For you, Steve, it's just the mind control... ;) :D

I must agree.;) I don't mind at all.

[kibakiba]

I wouldn't either. Sometimes it seems like Mama is trying to control me, but I;m just too strong willed for her. ;) It does get hard to resist, though... With those big, beautiful golden brown eyes looking up at me and pleading for lots of pinkies and fuzzies...

[EasternGirl]

Yes...I have done what you guys suggested and I haven't feed Selena in a couple of days. She is now working the mind control...she sits close up to the glass in her enclosure and looks at me with this sad/intent look on her face that says "Lady..you better feed me right now or I am going to jump out of here and eat your face!"...sometimes the look is just pathetic and says "you know you are starving me, right?"...I'm getting weak you guys....

[guidofatherof5]

Yes...I have done what you guys suggested and I haven't feed Selena in a couple of days. She is now working the mind control...she sits close up to the glass in her enclosure and looks at me with this sad/intent look on her face that says "Lady..you better feed me right now or I am going to jump out of here and eat your face!"...sometimes the look is just pathetic and says "you know you are starving me, right?"...I'm getting weak you guys....

Be strong. Be strong:D

[kibakiba]

You can do it! Mama pulls the same trick on me 10 minutes after eating 2-3 pinkies... But I know I have to resist giving her another one.

[guidofatherof5]

You can do it! Mama pulls the same trick on me 10 minutes after eating 2-3 pinkies... But I know I have to resist giving her another one.


Wait a minute. That's not resisti............. Oh, never mind.:D
I feed them too.;)

[EasternGirl]

Lol... I think I'm going to go to the pet store and see if they carry silversides and see if Selena likes those...

[guidofatherof5]

Variety= a healthy snake.:)