Rather than make periodic threads, I figure I'd just...start this one and run with it. So behold, the adventures of Dart the pastel checkered garter!

So THE GOOD NEWS: I ordered a whole bunch of 1 day old pinks and he's finally eating them whole. Hurray! I am braining them for now, but I'll try cutting that out soon. He took two last night--a relief, because last time I offered him multiple prey items he snubbed the second one.

I still feed via plating and then covering the enclosure. If I try to tong feed him (as I did last week) he'll drop the mouse as soon as I move. He doesn't seem any tamer than when I got him in August. He's still a shoestring, of course, but I'd been hoping for some progress by now. Oh well.

We did have some stuck shed to deal with last week--just a bit on the tail. Not surprising since humidity has dropped to 15% or so with the winter. I do offer both snakes humid hides 24/7, but Dart doesn't tend to live there while he's in blue like my king will. I had him take a swim, and then tried to see if crawling through a damp towel would work. Nope! So I tried to gently hold him in one hand and then work the shed off the end of his tail with the other, which was quite the trick with a flaily little thing.

I only nearly dropped him once. :P

I did get it off eventually! I enjoyed watching him swim, although I think he was disappointed there were no fish lurking in the water.

He'll be getting a mild enclosure shake up soon. It's time for a cleaning, so I'll rearrange his beloved clutter some. I've also decided to add UV light to his set up--I realize it's not "needed" for snakes but after doing some reading and chatting with a few other keepers, I want to try.