Meet the gang!

[kibakiba]

Well when I had caught her I thought she was pregnant, she was the biggest garter I had ever seen :P So I named her Mama. Her and Snakey... Got "frisky" in early june, but Mama doesn't seem to be pregnant, she's not big in any sense besides her being the female :P If she did have babies, I'd give them a couple meals and let them go in the field. That's where I caught my snakes And speaking of big, it's time to give snakey a big meal he's skinny since he didnt eat for 2 weeks... He rejected everything so maybe now that he's all shed he'll eat something now.

[kibakiba]

Snakey took a pinky and Mama took 2 pinkies and a night crawler. I swear she's insane with eating. She seems to be begging me for more food right now Runt was given cut up night crawlers, but he didn't take any I think he's about to shed, though.
Runt musked me the other day... My moms dog tried jumping up on my knees and it scared Runt so bad he musked and pooped on himself and me Poor little guy.

[guidofatherof5]

Good news on the eating
Bad dog, bad dog. On the jumping.

[kibakiba]

Yeah she hates the snakes and is scared of them. She didn't know I had Runt I guess. Usually she'd be as far away as possible. That or she was jealous that I was loving on Runt instead of her and she wanted to get my attention

Mama is so mean. I looked at the water dish today. She pooped on it, no different than the other days except the fact I'm scrubbing and scrubbing and it WONT come off! I've used soap, a little bit of diluted bleach, a scrubbing sponge, an old unused toothbrush.... It's as if she ate superglue and pooped it out!

[guidofatherof5]

Wow, I've never heard of tough poop before.

[kibakiba]

Haha, I got it off after soaking it for 30 minutes in hot water. Shes been having some pretty tough poop since she ate the fuzzy. I don't mean she has constipation, I made sure she was fine with that but she doesn't seem to have trouble going at all. It just gets extremely rock hard. I was hoping feeding her a night crawler with her pinks would maybe make it less hard, who knows. We'll see in a couple days. It seems like she's doubled in size over night She just seems.. Longer and her head is larger. Or maybe it's because I've been handling Snakey more since he's not grumpy anymore. He nipped me the night I fed them I tried feeding him a worm but he wouldnit take it, so I gave it to Mama and then he decided to steal it, so I took him out and held him while she ate the worm, without washing the wormy smell off my fingers. He pinched my palm pretty hard. I only got one little prick that drew blood but that hurt! Haha. He hasn't bit me since the first month of owning him which is over a year. I jokingly said i wouldn't feed him for 2 weeks if he ever did it again. It seems like he heard me... He coiled up and put his tail over his head, Haha. It was so cute.

[kibakiba]

Guess which little one shed today? He's all pretty and soft! His stripe is still looking slightly brown, I wonder if it'll stay that way. Mama's stripe gets brown if she's getting close to shedding. I thought maybe his was like that because he was close to shedding, but nope! Maybe it'll turn whitish when he's older. I've never seen a snake around here with a brown stripe here's a couple pictures of him.

This one shows how tiny he is in comparison to my hand.



Here's him slithering on the big snakes tank :P He got introduced to them... They weren't very welcoming.


Snakey tried getting frisky with him, not sure if it was a "welcome to my tank! I really like you!" or maybe Snakey just didn't get any with Mama so he decided to pick on Runt. Mama was looking at him with that "if you come any closer I WILL eat you!" type of look. I took him out after that, I didn't want to risk him getting hurt.

[ConcinusMan]

First sign that shedding is near with those snakes is the belly. it starts to turn gray/milky before you see signs on the upper parts. I have noticed that WC males tend to take a bit longer before they will eat. They are already quite thin, being males, and so you might have some concern with the not eating thing. Not to worry. The thing to watch for is the skin. I mean, if it gets kinda lose and starts to fold near the area where the lateral stripe is, or would be, then it's time to start getting concerned.

So far, judging from the pics you have provided, they look OK. Those last two pics, if male, he looks OK to me. Not at all critically underweight.

You do have to watch out with any garter when they're hungry. If you've been handling their food, you can pretty much expect to get bit. Just don't jerk back or overreact. Give them a minute to realize they can't swallow your hand. They'll let go on their own. Their rows of teeth are quite delicate. Don't want to do something that could cause mouth injury.

[kibakiba]

Runt is presumed male, I cant tell. He's too tiny. He may be female,though. As time goes on his tail seems more taper-y. He's a troubled eater since he gets spooked so easily. I cant feed him more than 2 pieces of nightcrawlers with them. I keep a dish with cut up nightcrawler in it if he wont take them from me. He doesnt always eat them, but at least I'm trying to feed him. He's kind of a shy eater. Gotta have his little log over the dish or he's too scared to eat. That or he'll snatch one and then quickly drag it to his hide. Maybe that's just his comfort zone when eating. He knows that there's nothing around to spook him in there

I know having wormy hands can cause a snake to bite. I was half expecting him to "omnomnom" on my finger, but he went for my palm. I didn't jerk back, as I know it could hurt him it just made me tense up a bit.

[ConcinusMan]

Try that with a 3.2 foot concinnus! My big girl nailed me on the palm once or twice while feeding. She draws blood.