Update on the young San Francisco garter snakes...

[Thamnophis]

Eight of the ten young San Francisco garter snakes that were born on May 17, 2012, are doing very well. They eat voracious (salmonfilet, smelt, chicken heart) and have no problem when I put a small bit of multivitamin, calcium and vitamin B on the food every now and than.

Regrettably two of them refuse all food that I offered, including earthworms, small snails, etc.
They now are a bit skinny, but seem healthy and still are quite vivid.

Yesterday I placed the both of them in a small plastic box with very moist substrate and put them in the refrigerator. They get a short brumation in the summer. I think I will let it last for three weeks.
I have done this before the past years with a few young San Francisco garter snakes and young Mesoamerican Highlands garter snakes (T. fulvus) that refused to eat.
After the short brumation most of them started to eat and are still doing well. Only one tetrataenia died very soon after the brumation. But this one was very, very skinny. I waited too long that time to start the brumation, I think.

I expect that these two start eating after the brumation without problems.
I will keep you updated.

On the first two pictures you see two of the eight juveniles that eat very well.
On the third picture you see one of the not-eating juveniles that is sleeping in the refrigerator.

[chris-uk]

Thanks for the update, and particularly the information about using a short brumation to try to stimulate feeding as I'd not heard about that before. Keep us updated with the outcome of that.

[CrazyHedgehog]

I paid £300 for 4, (2.2) at Doncaster, tiny, and not really eating.but he was honest and said they were 2 weeks old and only one had eaten :O

I knew I was taking a risk, but that was top of my list to get to add to mine....

1 is as he said eating, but limited, the others, I have assisted, as soon as its in their mouth they seem happy to eat, but just won't seem to start on their own.

But now I am torn.... I really do not want to sress thenm out by feeding, and I am tempted by the fridge method, but we are still shoelace size, really tiny and thin and I would worry they are not strong enough to cope with that either!!.

I would appreciate your advice on whether you have done this with tiny new borns or only when a little bigger...(Oh and what temp fridge please)

[twgrosmick]

I have used the short brumation approach. (in my case two weeks) for one of my male checkered and female red sided garters. worked well for me and got them feeding again right away.

[twgrosmick]

I paid £300 for 4, (2.2) at Doncaster, tiny, and not really eating.but he was honest and said they were 2 weeks old and only one had eaten :O

I knew I was taking a risk, but that was top of my list to get to add to mine....

1 is as he said eating, but limited, the others, I have assisted, as soon as its in their mouth they seem happy to eat, but just won't seem to start on their own.

But now I am torn.... I really do not want to sress thenm out by feeding, and I am tempted by the fridge method, but we are still shoelace size, really tiny and thin and I would worry they are not strong enough to cope with that either!!.

I would appreciate your advice on whether you have done this with tiny new borns or only when a little bigger...(Oh and what temp fridge please)

Mine were on pinky chunks. A little big bigger than you described. I had my fridge set at 53 or so for about two weeks. I would wait to hear input from others seeing as they are very small. Try offering different types of food. worms, fish, etc.

[guidofatherof5]

Very nice. Keep those updates coming. They are always welcome.

[gazzamann]

nice san frans

[Dan72]

Very cool. Love the San Francisco garters, great looking snakes.

[Invisible Snake]

Thanks for the update and pics, have you ever tried force feeding as a last resort?

[Thamnophis]

Thanks for the update and pics, have you ever tried force feeding as a last resort?

Yes I have. But the specimen that had to be forcefed for a longer period did not grow, suffered lots of stress and always died after a while. So I do not do this anymore. The brumation of a few weeks during the summer is the last effort. If this does not help, I put them to "sleep". But the results up to now are very encouraging.