I thought that you would all like to take a look at this little fellow. He was born late in the year in 2007, with only one other brother and a sister. That's right, a full grown checkered albino gives birth to just THREE. Why? I am pretty sure she was in bad hands before I brought her and her mate home in late august. She had a respiratory infection and I can tell by the shape of her nose that she had mouth rot at some time in her life.

Well we fought the sickness, that's behind us, she is now in brumation, but her babies are well.... weird. Obviously i was VERY surprised to see babies in the tank one day. Also a lot of infertile slugs, I suspect poor husbandry is to blame. One of the babies passed away early on. The other two are growing like WEEDS.

When you see the pictures below, don't freak out. He's not dead. Weetod, as I have come to call him, is very different from other garter snakes. See, he likes to spend half of his time Upside-down. From what I can tell, this is some kind of balance issue that he was born with. Half the time I will walk into the room and he will be laying there with his cagemates. snuggled up, except he's belly up! Is that unreal or what?!?! When he is right side up, as he crawls, he sometimes turns his head almost as if he is tempted to turn upside down once more... and i mean he does a lot of things upside down! drinks, eats, sleeps, and he slithers around his tank that way too! but like I said, he is only upside down half the time. His sister Upsy-Daisy shows signs of this too, only she never turns upside down, she just twitches a bit on occasion.

Has anyone else ever seen this kind of thing? My conclusion is that since mom was very ill whle carrying babies, she lost most of the clutch and the babies have a bit of a birth defect of some sort. I of course, will never breed or sell these two. But he has become a favorite of mine! here are some pics. He's 4 months old and growing FAST!