Baby garter ate another baby

[Yonner]

One of my baby garter snakes ate another of the baby snakes. They were all the same size. I assume it ate her sibling because now there are only two (was three) and the one is bloated very big. Should i be worried about the cannibal?

I didn't think they ate each other, especially since they were all identical in size. I am sad at the loss of one of the trio...

[Stefan-A]

Separate them. You wouldn't happen to know what kind of garter snakes you have?

[mb90078]

This is why everyone advocates supervision if electing to do group feeding. It's extremely rare, but accidents happen.

Is it impossible that one didn't escape and maybe the other hog all the food?

Out of curiosity, what species/sub species are we talking about?

[guidofatherof5]

Nice to have you on the forum.
It would be great if you could post a photo so we could help you identify your snake.
Until then I would separate them out.
Here's a link to the forum care sheet:
Garter Snake Care Sheet - Caresheets

[Yonner]

I feed them in a separate enclosure and individually. There wasn't any food in the cage at the time.

[guidofatherof5]

I feed them in a separate enclosure and individually. There wasn't any food in the cage at the time.

There may have been some leftover scent. Garters have an awesome sense of smell.
Feeding accidents are always a terrible thing.

[Ameivaboy]

There may have been some leftover scent. Garters have an awesome sense of smell.
Feeding accidents are always a terrible thing.

This happened to me a few years ago.
I was feeding babies like this



Then would reintroduce them to the community cage as soon as they got them down. Which resulted in this at one point.





This saddened me very much. The Concinnus was the prettiest one from that litter and was going to be a holdback. I was able to get the concinnus out of the pickeringii alive, but it died the next day.


Nowadays I let them sit for about an hour before re-introducing them.
Havent had an issue since.

[Yonner]

That is a very sad picture indeed. I've been feeding mine and then returning them back right after, but now that the two are separated it won't be an issue.

The snake eat snake incident happened between feedings, where they had fed the previous day and would feed the next or so.

[Yonner]

I'll get photo's up tomorrow..

[Yonner]

They haven't been fed in a couple of days either.