Gravid?

[stonyloam]

Always something! Will take care of it.

[stonyloam]

Man! These things are escape artists!! I had my snakes in a 15 gal tank as temporary housing. I had a window screen weighted with a block. No snake could escape right? Wrong! I went down to check on them and BOTH #1 & #2 were gone. They must have squeezed out under the screen, but there were NO gaps. Don’t know how they did, would have had to LIFT the screen. I’m impressed! Found #1 sitting on the window sill looking out. No sign of #2. No problem, she can just follow the “snake trails” to the outside. Caught three other garters around the pool this morning, including my “buddy” from this spring. I might keep him for a while, he is such a nice snake. The other two I had not seen before, one appears to be Maritime and the other Common. The Common, was pretty amazing. It looks like it had been nearly cut in half at one time, huge scar on its neck, tough little buggers. Guess I’ll have to get my enclosure done FAST.

[adamanteus]

Yeah, they're pretty tough for the size! Guess they have to be!

[stonyloam]

OK! Everybody is back in “protective custody”. Found #2 curled up at the snake hole where I first started “baiting”. Rick: I got some Neosporin AF (always being a practical person I got something I could use on my athletes foot too) and treated the spots on the snakes. Picked up the rest of the stuff for my power tool free (almost) enclosure. If it comes out half way decent I’ll put in the enclosures thread.

[stonyloam]

Garterguy compared them to potato chips “can’t have just one”. He may be right, here is my stack of Pringles.

[Thamnophis]

Tough and very good escapers!

[Cazador]

Yep. It's amazing the injuries that they can survive in the wild. I think the stress of captivity makes them a bit more vulnerable, though.

Rick

P.S. The Neosporin is a good call. Apply it daily.

[stonyloam]

It is pretty interesting, of the snakes that spent the winter under (and in) my sunroom none of them had any of the fungus spots, I am guessing that it was nice and dry under there, whereas the snakes that wintered outside (under the concrete slab around the pool) seemed to have more problems. Could be colder and wetter under there? Anyway, I have identified 14 individual snakes living within 50 feet of my sunroom (3 milks, 10 garters and one brown). Appears to be good habitat. Am still looking hard for “big green” and “blue”, I REALLY want to find them now. Going to try to rig up a "maternity" box. Gotta have more babies! AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGG!!!

[stonyloam]

If you were wondering about my “no power tools vivarium”, none of the unconventional materials that I looked at have worked out, so I went with wood and glass. All hand tools (miter saw, utility knife, clamps sandpaper, glue, and silicone RTV). I did make one concession to power and used my battery powered drill. All of the lumber is off the shelf dimensional lumber, 1x1 1x2 1x3 1x4 that you can find at Home Depot. The base is 12x36 shelving, and the sides are tongue and groove wainscoting. Still figuring out what I want for a top. Screwed up bigtime and forgot to cut a door in the side (it came to me after the glue had set). Oh well, a top loader shouldn’t be too bad. Should be able to finish it up tomorrow. Oh yah, the size is 36x12x16.

[adamanteus]

Looks like you're "handy" with wood, Terry.