My lazy baby garters want to sleep all day and not get no job!

[Elisabeth83]

I just got two of the cutest little babies. One is a few months old, and I think the other one is barely a month old at best. The little one was shipped to me from Florida via Morph Market, the bigger one is local. I’ve had them for 3-4 days now and all they ever do is cuddle up with each other and sleep all day long. Adorable! But I’m getting a little concerned. Aren’t they supposed to be pretty active snakes? They have a daylight lamp and one side of the tank with external heating, so I don’t think they are too cold or think it’s night time.
Do baby garters just need a lot of sleep? The really tiny baby hasn’t eaten anything since he’s been home either but maybe that’s just because he had to travel a ways to get to me. The bigger baby ate some tilapia and mouse pieces on the first night home. Not sure what to do about their low energy levels or if I should even be worried. Any advice would be great! I’m a very new snake mom.

[guidofatherof5]

Are you using a heater to give them a hot spot to go to? Are they eating, if so, what?

[Elisabeth83]

Yes they have a heating pad and day lamp on one side of their tank. And I got both of them to eat today! The big baby loves cut up pieces of tilapia and mouse pinkie parts, and even took some tilapia right out of my hand. The little tiny baby finally ate today for the first time he’s been home. He went crazy for the tilapia pieces, didn’t seem too keen on the mouse parts. I’ll be giving the tilapia and mouse pieces a soak together next time to see if I can get the little one to take some mice. I now have two fat happy noodles laying around in their tank, cuddled up together in the warm spot, and sleeping again, as usual.

[MNGuy]

How long have you had them? Are they actually sleeping or just staying very still?

My eastern was super active and out all of the time as a baby. My radix hid a lot and was not very active. Both were and are fine. Sometimes it’s a personality issue, although you should rule out environmental causes.

Good luck.

[Elisabeth83]

I’ve had them now about 4 days. I believe the one I got from Morph is a Florida Blue hybrid. Not sure about the local one, but he looks like he could be a western terrestrial or black necked. Now that you mention it, I’m not very sure if they are sleeping or just staying really still. They usually just coil up together and lay there, with a few short random bouts of activity throughout the day, then they find each other again and cuddle right back up and sit around for a few hours. It’s so cute! But I’m not sure if it’s normal for them to be such lazy babies. New to this.

Their environment: They have heat and light during the day, at night the light goes off but I keep their heating pad on at the left side of their tank. They have lots of damp moss and shredded paper on a bed of dry paper towels, fake plants to climb on, and a little snake hutch with moss to hide in but they rarely use it. I change their water daily. and give them some spritzes two or three times a day. I hope I’m doing everything right. Maybe I just have some little snakes with very laid back personalities? Idk.

[Manitou]

Turn that heat pad off at night, let them cool down. Thamnophis are temperate colubrids not tropical pythons/boas. Give them the 20+ degree fluctuation that they've had for the last zillion years. My morning temps now (August) are <60F during which time they are relatively inactive; mid-afternoon temps ~80F when they eat like pigs. They need that rebooting every 24hrs. Drop the "spritzes", if you're concerned with humidity then simply provide a humid hide, it doesn't rain everyday. Neonates should be gorging themselves in an attempt to put on mass before brumation. Provide them with live earthworms and they eat more vs tilapia/pinkies. My neonates and even my yearlings will literally eat their weight in worms every 2-3 days. The natural diurnal/nocturnal cycle that they can get next to a window is superior to an artificial light. Let them feel the days getting shorter - they should be eating a lot. Just my $0.03

[MNGuy]

If you feed them both at the same time never leave food alone in the tank unattended. They could eat each other. I recommend tong feeding them or feeding one in a separate container. I've snakes go after each other over the same piece of food and it gets vicious.

[Elisabeth83]

Oh yes, they get supervised feedings every single time and they are tong fed. They are eating tons of pinkie parts, fish and worms now. They’re still cuddle buddies who love naps, but they seem more confident and happy overall and they like to explore their tank at varying times of day. They’ve both grown a little and put on weight and one of them is about to shed soon. Seems like they just needed time to adjust to their new home. Also I think they might both be girls as they both have really skinny tapered tails (waiting till they’ve grown a bit more to get them sexed professionally) and I think I remember hearing male garters are a bit more active than the females but I could be wrong. Anybody with way more experience than me, please don’t hesitate to correct me on that. I’ll start turning off the heating pad at night now and see if that makes them feel even better. Thanks everyone for the advice. I’m so happy with these two little babies and I’m learning a ton about garter snakes.