first babies this year !!!

[Gijs & Sabine]

The first babies were born yesterday, sirtalis sirtalis. There are 24 very active babies and unfortunately 4 misshaped (don't know if that's the correct word)
The mom is doing great and started to eat right away today.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/P1010265Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/P1010264Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/P1010241Small.jpg



and one of the misshaped ones
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/P1010275Small.jpg

[adamanteus]

Congratulations! 24 beautiful babies! Is the deformed baby in the picture dead? It's a shame, but with such a high birth rate I suppose defects are inevitable. Were all 4 deformed babies similar in their deformities?

[Gijs & Sabine]

So it's called DEFORMED, thnx for that James.
The deformities were similar with all the 4 babies and, that's the hardest, they were not dead:( But everybody can understand that these babies didn't have any change on a good live, so I had to put them in the freezer.

[adamanteus]

Nothing else you could do. Did you read this thread?

http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/garter-snake-lounge/653-siamese-2-headed-snakes.html?highlight=headed

I wrote about a deformed T.radix haydenii I once had (post #6). I would be interested to read of other peoples experiences with birth defective snakes which survived.

[Gijs & Sabine]

Yes, I already read it. It would be interesting indeed, but where do you make the line wether to keep them alive or not. In your case the plains didn't seem to have any problems, but I think my baby easterns did, becouse they were not able to move.

This kind of conversation is hard for me in english, becouse I can't express myself very good:D I hope you get my point.

[adamanteus]

I understand you very well. I think you were absolutely right in your choice to euthanize those snakes. They had no chance of survival. I wasn't trying to critisize, I would have done the same thing. I am just interested to know of other peoples experiences.

[Sid]

Beautiful little ones. I had 16 T. s. sirtalis born last 4th of July and 1 had the same deformity as your did:( . It was added to the freezer too. I felt it was the most humane thing.

Sid

[ssssnakeluvr]

I had a w/c red sider that had 24 babies, 3 had extremely shortened lower jaws...had to put them down, kinda hard to eat with no lower jaw.

[Cazador]

Sabine,

Congratulations! I don't think anyone would presume to second-guess the decision that another makes to euthanize an injured/malformed snake. It's a personal decision that has to be made with the best interest of each, individual snake in mind. Thanks for including all of these pictures. They're all wonderful.

Rick

[chloe]

Congratulations, beautiful babies

[Snaky]

Like already said on the Dutch forum, congrats with the little one's!

[Stefan-A]

Congratulations, very nice looking babies and sorry about the deformed ones. :)

How old and big is the female?

[drache]

congratulations
lovely babies
sorry about the deformed ones

[mikm]

Very nice !!! CONGRATS :))

[GartersRock]

They are gorgeous, cute babies!! Congrats!!

[Gijs & Sabine]

Thnx everybody for such nice words, it makes me really happy to read so many congrats:)
And I'm glad that everybody understand it's hard to put a baby garter down, but it's the best thing to do for a deformed one like that:(

[Ameivaboy]

Culling the deformed was the best and most responsible thing you could have done so I congratulate you on that desicion and for your new babies : D


here's a nice little article that has to do with the subject of culling offspring and I couldnt have said it better myself

Culling Offspring (http://arbreptiles.com/lastword/culling.shtml)

[adamanteus]

It's an interesting article Kevin, eloquently written, but I'm not sure I agree with it's general message.

[garterking]

So it's called DEFORMED, thnx for that James.
The deformities were similar with all the 4 babies and, that's the hardest, they were not dead:( But everybody can understand that these babies didn't have any change on a good live, so I had to put them in the freezer.

Congrats on your new additions. They are fun to watch when they are trying things, or figuring out eating for the first time.

Not to derail this thread at all but, Is putting them in the freezer the most humane way? I'm not accusing or judging, just asking for my own interest.

[Ameivaboy]

well im sure a quick snap of the neck or being smashed with a brick would technically be the quickest least amount of pain to the animal, but you'd sure get a bunch of outrage for doing that even though techinically it's less pain to the animal, freezing on the other hand takes a little while and in the mean time the animal just has to bare with it, im not gonna judge how people do it

[GarterGuy]

Congrats on the new little ones. I love this time of year....lots of cute little baby snakes!:D
Roy