Hello everyone,

As I was saying in my presentation post, I just got a male Garter Thamnophis sirtalis subsp parietalis, 2.5 years old about a month ago. It's my very first snake in captivity so I am a bit stressed about its conditions. In advance, sorry for my approximate english, I am french

He was eating frozen Smelt (Atherina boyeri) about once a week when I got him, refusing every other kind of food (living fish, small earth worms, frog legs, frozen filet etc.). The guy who gave it to me was feeding him exclusively with frozen fish, I guess that's the reason why the snake wanted to eat only this kind of food.

Since 2 weeks though, he completely refuse to eat and seems less active than before. I changed a bit the set up of its terrarium recently and maybe that stressed him a little, I don't know. When I put food in his terrarium, on a little plate, he seems more active and going everywhere in his terrarium, even passing through the food without eating it.

My conditions : big terrarium with places to hide 100 x 40 x 50cm, living plants, substrate based on pine barks, a hot zone and "cold" one, mean temperature of the day about 27°C and during the night around 24°C. There is a little spot to swim but he isn't very interested in this, oddly. I tried giving him a big swimming pool but I put it out as he wasn't going in there and it was taking a lot of place. What else... The terrarium is in my living room, there's some indirect light during the day (close to a window) but I don't have any lamp. I am in my house only at the end of the day so I don't think he is stressed by me.

Finally, I don't think he is going to change skin as its eyes don't look "grey", but its colors seem a bit less bright than when I had it. Maybe it's only this but I wanted to have your point of view, since it's my very first experience with snake

I can share pics of the terrarium if you wish !

Thank you a lot in advance for your help guys !

Au revoir