Meet the gang!

[kibakiba]

I do provide things like that for my little ones. They don't ever soak and they don't like being anywhere near the misted areas, but once they do go clear I can usually find them inside of their little log tube that I mist pretty often. Snap and Ember hate me for it, Snap even goes as far as to hiss and strike at me when I go to mist somewhere in the tank, her favorite spot... Underneath their tree. Though I guess it's like me when my mom decides to "clean" my room(mess it up and lose my things) or make my bed in a different way than I like it.

I also mist inside Thumbelina and Squirt's favorite hiding place, because I know that they are the troubled shedders. Though, I only really mist around there if one of them is going into shed.

I've been wondering about Squirt. He's always seemed a little bit more frail than Thumbelina, and will sometimes have a bad appetite... Like eating only one worm, fish or pinky part and refusing all else for about a week or two. He used to be larger than Thumbelina, and now she's starting to outgrow him. Could his shedding problem be linked to his refusing of food every now and then? He does seem to start refusing food more often 2 weeks before he sheds. I was thinking about it earlier, and realized that there is a bit of a pattern, the 3 times he's shed for me he did refuse food or eat very little for at least 2 weeks before he shed. I hope he grows out of doing that, I would really hate for anything to happen to him if I didn't catch it in time.

[guidofatherof5]

I've never been a big fan of "shed boxes" since that kind of micro climate should be provided in their regular enclosure in the first place. My snakes generally do not soak or need a shed box. This is because of the micro climates I provide. Even a moist substrate in one corner with a hide, would be considered a micro climate. I try to provide that for very small snakes. It's important!

Providing the perfect(impossible) conditions in captivity still doesn't keep sheds from being retained.
You yourself have reported retained sheds with a few of your snakes and that was with a micro-climate.
Retained sheds are probably a result of many factors, stress, hormones, genetics, etc.
Shed boxes/bags and emergency sheds will always be a part of keeping garter snakes.
The more snakes you keep the greater the incident of retained sheds.
Having those tools(shed box/bag) available is just being prepared.

[kibakiba]

There's something wrong with Squirt's mouth. I was feeding the older ones left over fuzzies from Mama's feeding time, and I noticed Squirt's jaw looking as if he had gotten bitten or had something stuck in there. I picked him up and there isn't any obvious signs of an injury or anything being stuck in his mouth other than his mouth being slightly open. I didn't see any swelling when I opened his mouth.
What could it be?

[Mommy2many]

Do you have a picture?

[kibakiba]

I checked on him again and his mouth is fine. It just looked pretty much like his mouth was stuck open partially.

On another note Mama's backside looks like it's going to burst and the poor girl cant stop moving. I was feeding the older babies and she kept trying to get out, and to allow her some freedom I kept the tank open and let her slither around the top and my desk, where she then slithered onto my hand. She's a really calm girl, she rarely moves if I'm holding her but she seemed too restless to stop. she seemed comforted when I was softly rubbing my finger on her belly. That was one of the only times I got her to stop moving. I'll ad a picture of how huge she is later.

[guidofatherof5]

Looking forward to the photos.

[kibakiba]

Getting them off my camera and resized now!

Here is a picture of here almost a month ago, on Jan. 15th

(she was asking me if she could buy some stuff with my card... )


Here is her yesterday




And here's a picture my boyfriend screenshotted off my webcam... It's really horrible quality, but it's cute.


Snakey's nickname is "nakey snakey" because my niece and nephew cant pronounce anything with an "s" in it so they say "nake" instead of "snake" and "nakey" instead of "snakey"

[kibakiba]

Here's another 2 pictures of some of my babies.

Snap fell asleep upside down on my hand. I don't know why. She stayed like that for 30 minutes.


And here's Ember, Snap and Thumbelina all cuddling together.



Aren't they so cute?

[guidofatherof5]

Yes, they are.

[zooplan]

Snap fell asleep upside down on my hand. I don't know why. She stayed like that for 30 minutes.

Thats the way of predator fooling European Grass Snakes do.
Dispaying theirself as dead. Curling up at their back, opening their mouths with tongue protruded. Together with musking it´s really realistic!