Cee Cee and Selena...The Eastern Girls

[EasternGirl]

Here is an update on Cee Cee and Selena, my Eastern girls...with a couple of new pics...

Cee Cee is about two and a half feet long now...she finally took two worms again from me from tongs yesterday and gobbled them up like they were going out of style. She hasn't taken food from me in a long time, so that was quite an accomplishment! For those of you who don't know the story of Cee Cee...she was found in my flower bed outside last spring, and I brought her inside because I feared her getting hurt by a lawn mower or an animal outside. When I posted pics on here, everyone immediately told me she was gravid. I already had one eastern garter, my little Selena. I put Cee Cee in incubation...with the intention of eventually having her as a roommate for Selena. Last July, Cee Cee gave birth to 30 stillborn babies. After the babies were born, I put her in with Selena...they have been happy roomies every since.

Selena came to live with me after I found her as a little scrub stuck in a spiderweb in my basement. She was a very skiddish girl at first...but she was my introduction to snakes...and what a wonderful introduction she was! She is now about a foot and a half long. She loves living with Cee Cee and they curl up together all the time. I can't imagine life without snakes now!

Yesterday, I got some new things for the enclosure...I got a new play rock for the girls and put some moist moss inside. I have never kept moist moss in the girls' enclosure before...I have always just misted it with water....so we will see how they like this. Cee Cee hasn't shed in quite a while so I'm hoping this might be good for her.

Here are some new pics of my girls:

[snakehill]

Too Cute!! :D I had a WC eastern but she escaped and I haven't seen her since! (my stupidity!) Hope she made it to the basement! ;)

[EasternGirl]

Thanks! I love my girls! Garters are so wonderful...they have such personality. I hope your snake made it to the basement too!

[snakehill]

I have 5 dogs, 3 cats and a kitten! She seems to have made it past all of them thankfully! :p

[EasternGirl]

Thankfully! I do not know if my snakes would make it through this house successfully if they escaped. I have a feeling they would probably intimidate my cats, but my chihuahua can be pretty crazy!

[snakehill]

I have 2 crazy chihuahuas!!!;)

[EasternGirl]

That is too funny! You and I seem to have a lot in common...My chihuahua is almost nine-months old...his name is Elvis Presley...We call him Presley:3265 My cats are Boo, Beanie, and Ian: 3266 Cleo, my tortoise hair is in that pic too...but she passed. My son, Julian is nine-years-old. He has two hermit crabs...Shelly and PJ...don't have any pics of them! But here is my son: 3267 This is a pic of my son and me and Presley when he was only 8 weeks old!

[snakehill]

All very cute!!! :D I don't have a camera (very frustrating!)

[EasternGirl]

oh...that is frustrating...well, tell me about your pets...

[EasternGirl]

Cee Cee pooped on me for the first time today...that was not a fun experience! :o

[guidofatherof5]

Cee Cee pooped on me for the first time today...that was not a fun experience! :o

So that's how you react to gifts.:D

[EasternGirl]

Perhaps that was her way of thanking me for her new rock hide...:rolleyes:

[EasternGirl]

Cee Cee is trying to shed again...the poor girl has an awful time getting her shed started..it always takes her forever to get the whole process started. She sits around for a week looking all sad and dim and foggy-eyed...hiding and soaking and just looking generally miserable. Tonight I made her a shed box with moist moss inside...which she is, of course, refusing to go into...she did sit her head inside of it for a few moments..lol. She soaked in her water dish for a while and she keeps rubbing herself all over the plants and hides in her viv....here is hoping she gets that shed off soon! Selena always gets the whole process over with in a couple of days...poor Cee Cee!

[EasternGirl]

Question: What do you guys think an ideal night temp is for garters? And where is a good place to buy a hydrometer?

[kibakiba]

I'd say 60, maybe 65. That's what I try to keep mine at, it all depends on how moody my heater is being, though.

[EasternGirl]

Thanks Chantel...I've been using the bulb that you sent me...and I checked the temp on the warm side of the enclosure tonight and it's staying at around 76 under the bulb...but I moved the enclosure in front of a window and it is a bit drafty there...I think with the cooler parts of the enclosure being available to the snakes...maybe I'll just leave the bulb on...what do you think? I'm going to go get another thermometer tomorrow so that I can monitor both sides of the tank until I'm sure they are okay near the window. Do you use a hydrometer?

[infernalis]

Question: What do you guys think an ideal night temp is for garters? And where is a good place to buy a hydrometer?

Did you mean hygrometer? I'm sure you did. ;)

found this for you.

Amazon.com: Exo Terra Hygrometer: Pet Supplies (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00026053Y/ref=asc_df_B00026053Y1791596?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B00026053Y)


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qNnRVx-yL._SS400_.jpg

[snakehill]

Petco has them for under $4.00. (Sorry-I know we have lot of members that don't like Petco :p )

[kibakiba]

I go based on my nose. Usually, I get nosebleeds if the humidity is under 50, and at around 70 my nose stuffs up. We used to have a thermometer that also measured humidity, so as a kid I liked watching what the humidity was at, and how it affected my nose.

[EasternGirl]

Yes...I meant hygrometer...of course...:rolleyes:! Thanks guys, because I was looking at them at the pet store buy my house and they wanted like $34... That is interesting Chantel...I'm always having problems with my sinuses...mostly due to allergies...but I wonder if the humidity in my house has something to do with it as well now...

And what is the ideal humidity for garters?

[guidofatherof5]

I try to keep my snake between 50%-60%. Seems to work well for my snakes.
During the flood I hit 89% but that was with a foot of water on the floor.:D

[EasternGirl]

Sounds good...thanks, Steve.

[EasternGirl]

Here are a couple of cute pics I took of Selena poking her head out of her rock hide...

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[katach]

Cute!!

[guidofatherof5]

Selena is a good looking snake.

[EasternGirl]

Thanks...she thinks so..;). Cee Cee finally got her shed off....she had a lot of trouble and I had to help her get it off in the end...but now she is all shiny and happy.

[snakehill]

You could have entered one of those pics in the November photo contest!!! ;)

[EasternGirl]

Oh...thanks...I never think my pics are good enough for the contests...I need to get a better camera!

[EasternGirl]

The Ceecers...

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[kibakiba]

My preciousssssss pinkiessssss....

[EasternGirl]

Oh..Chantel! It came back! I'm going to readdress it and resend it tomorrow....;).

[kibakiba]

Yay! I'm glad you got it back. You can keep it if you like, since I have enough food for my babies now. :)

[EasternGirl]

Are you sure? With Christmas and all...I'm glad to help the snakies...

[katach]

I get to be Santa this year! 250 pinkies on 12-10. :)

[kibakiba]

If you want to you can, but I'll be saving your address and doing something nice for you next time I get a chance ;)

[EasternGirl]

That's awesome! I just bulk ordered some pinkies myself...thanks to a recommendation for Mice Direct from Chantel and Steve :). Gotta have lots of pinkies with the new baby coming...

[katach]

We used Layne Labs. They are out of CA and we are in WA so shipping was only $30 for 500 pinkies. It came to $0.23 per pinkie after shipping. Micedirect is out of Georgia so it's cheaper for you to use them.

[EasternGirl]

Been having fun with the camera tonight...sometimes the girls just melt my heart:

3364
And a couple more good pics of Cee Cee...

33653366 Always in her favorite rock hide...

[infernalis]

Thanks for sharing.

[EasternGirl]

I think they are posing for the camera at this point...

3370

[infernalis]

Nice photo.

[EasternGirl]

thanks...everytime I go over to the tank now they are doing something cuter...it's like they're sitting in there going "Here she comes, quick do something cute so she'll take another pic!"...lol...hams...

[kibakiba]

Awwwwww. So cute!

[EasternGirl]

Thanks!

[katach]

So cute!! I have 2 that love to pose and the rest try to hide from the camera. I always get them though. :)

[ScimitarX]

Your 2 girlies look great, love the shot of them peeping out the hide.

[EasternGirl]

Thanks...they're my little posers! Lol...

[tress29]

3365 Always in her favorite rock hide...
Where did you get that hide? It looks interesting.

[EasternGirl]

Luckily, I still had the box in my garage...ExoTerra Rock Outcrops Hiding Cave Small....they have different sizes. I got it at a local pet store but...http://www.amazon.com/Exo-Terra-Rock-Outcrops-Small/dp/B001B5DJAG/ref=pd_sim_petsupplies_1



(http://www.exo-terra.com)

[EasternGirl]

For some reason that link takes you to the ExoTerra site....go to Amazon.com and do a search and they have them in all sizes there for really cheap...

[EasternGirl]

I just put a UTH on Cee Cee and Selena's tank...figured I would try it out on them...I ordered another one that is coming for the albino...just have to be careful and keep a close eye on them right now as my thermostats haven't arrived yet. Cee Cee and Selena have decided they are in snake heaven...they have been lounging around over top of the heat mat since I turned it on...

[EasternGirl]

Just a funny little thing...my son Julian actually named our snakes...when we first found Selena, we thought she was a male and he named her Bieber because he loves Justin Bieber...then when we found out she was female, we changed her name to Selena, after Selena Gomez...Justin Bieber's girlfriend...lol. We actually call her "Biebs" as a nickname a lot. He also named Cee Cee...and I love the name. Today he saw me writing a post about her and he informed me that I am spelling her name incorrectly....lol...that it is spelled "CC"...lol

[katach]

Cute. How old is he?

[EasternGirl]

Nine. He won't hold the snakes yet though...still working on that!

[katach]

That is a fun age. Old enough to hold a good conversation with but not too old you start getting pre-teen attitude. :D

Bill's kids love holding the snakes. They only get to hold Maria and Willow though the rest are a little more difficult to hold, the baby is still too small too.

[EasternGirl]

He is at a really fun age...because we can hang out and do fun stuff together and I don't have to watch him every single second like when he was a toddler...I don't know though, he gets the pre-teen attitude a little already...:rolleyes:. A few years back, before I knew anything about garters, we were having our basement cleaned out and there were quite a few down there (what a find I would have thought today!) anyway...I was trying to move the snakes outside but really didn't know how to handle them properly...and made one big mama snake pretty defensive and she struck at me a few times before I could get her outside and Julian saw this and it scared him I think. I always tell him that snakes will only strike if they are scared and defending themselves and that they are just protecting themselves...and he knows that now...but he holds onto things for a long time! I think that he remembers that and is afraid of getting bit. He knows that Cee Cee and Selena don't bite me but he remembers that incident too and now I have a difficult time getting him to not fear snakes unfortunately.

Here are the girls enjoying their new heat pad:

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[katach]

Yeah they remember things for a long time.
That pic is great!

[EasternGirl]

I fed the girls again tonight. Separately! I ordered the calcium and vitamin D supplement that some of you guys had recommended and dusted some pinkies with it. Cee Cee the piggers of course gobbled up two pinkies right away without even taking time to notice that there was anything different about the food...and immediately looked for more. Selena, my picky girl, did her normal dance around the food, as I call it...I'm really going to have to video her feeding ritual the next time she eats...she slithers all around the tank...and around the dish...weaves in and out of her little bushes like she's stalking her food...pops out at it...sticks her tongue out at it a couple of times, then darts back into the bushes, goes back around the dish...pops her head in and out of the dish a few times...and then she usually starts eating. But this time, she was having nothing to do with it! She kept sticking her little tongue at the food and looking at it like..."something isn't right". She wasn't having anything to do with the vitamin supplement... So, of course piggers Cee Cee finished the food. Selena will just have to wait til the next feeding! Lol...

[katach]

If they are eating pinkies there really isn't a strong demand for the use of the supplement powder. Pinkies are pretty nutritionally complete. If you were feeding just fish and worms they would definitely need it though.

[EasternGirl]

Right....well, I bought it because up until recently all they were eating was fish and occasionally worms. And interestingly, they weren't eating very much and very often. Then all of the sudden last week they decided they were suddenly very hungry and that they liked pinkies again! It was odd! I went ahead and put the supplement on because it had been months that they had been eating primarily fish with the occasional worm...so I figured I better start getting some vitamins in them. Of course, now, I can get them to eat a more balanced diet....but I never know with these girls when they will start refusing to eat the pinkies or go off food all together for a while. In fact, Selena didn't eat much at all last feeding and she didn't eat anything tonight.

[katach]

Yeah I have 2 right now who are slowing down on the food. It's that time of year though.

[EasternGirl]

I haven't really noticed a pattern that goes with seasons with these girls though...I mean they stopped eating in the summer and now they are eating in the winter...isn't that backwards?

[katach]

Did you have them last winter?

[EasternGirl]

I had Selena last winter...I found her in November. She ate normally...for Selena...she has always eaten very little and she usually only eats part of what is on her dish and maybe every other feeding...which is usually once a week, sometimes every other week. I didn't get Cee Cee until last May and she was gravid when I found her...she ate constantly for the first couple of months and then she stopped...then she had 30 stillborns over a 3 week period in July...and she has eaten on and off in small amounts since then. Now all of the sudden she's acting famished.

[katach]

Gravid snakes sometime will stop eating prior to giving birth. Not all though. Willow ate the day before she had her babies.

[EasternGirl]

I figured that is probably why she wasn't eating during that time...and like I said Selena has never been a very hearty eater. Maybe Cee Cee is just now starting to get her appetite back in full. Okay...I'm going to try to go to sleep for a while...the new snake is supposed to get here before 10:30am...

[katach]

Have a good rest.