2011 Checkered Garter babies

[kibakiba]

With my snakes all of them are housed together. They all eat better that way. It's different for other people though, of course. I think it's the fact they feel they have to be competitive that makes them eat more vigorously. Squirt, however... Has everything worked out, hiding in a hole waiting for food to be given to her.

[HazAnga]

Don't most garters like being with others, in groups. Garters are social snakes I believe I read that somewhere. And most garter keepers at least house the same sex in one cage. I know I'm planning on having another cage for housing one of the sex's, so then when it comes to breeding I can do so more accurately and selectively. And I'm hoping that at least one of the Pastel hets is a male.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Garters keep in the company of each other for some reason. Probably the safety in numbers thing. Like I mentioned in my herping thread, just about all of the garters I found that day, were basking with another garter. They sit curled up in the grass entwined around one another. Like a buddy system of some sort. And they always have an escape route planned. When they spook, you'll notice wild garters will always book it for a certain spot. For these particular garters, it was the large tangled root system of a downed tree. Impossible to access... excellent protection. Congrats on your new babies!!!

[HazAnga]

Thankyou, they look very healthy and I'm going to try and feed tomorrow. I have to feed the others anyway.

[Spankenstyne]

Yeah I have almost all of my garters in groups, I'm all for it, but we just don't want someone to feel they have to keep them that way if they aren't comfortable with it. It would be terrible to see it end up with one of the rare accidents where someone gets eaten or wounded. I find mine seem to do better that way but others may have different experiences

[HazAnga]

yeah, I understand, most corn snake keepers would probably be likely to keep them separated because there used to keeping their snakes separated.

[brain]

yeah, I understand, most corn snake keepers would probably be likely to keep them separated because there used to keeping their snakes separated.

I keep my Kings seperate cause they might eat each other

[HazAnga]

I keep my Kings seperate cause they might eat each other

Yes but Kings are known to be cannibalistic.

[Sonya610]

Shoot, Shannon, it happened every time I wasn't quick enough to stop them. When you get them interlocking mouths and sinking each other's teeth into the inside of their mouths, it gets infected and swells up, every dang time. A real PITA to treat too.

All I'm saying is that if your babies are starting to fight, I would feed them separately. The fighting will only get worse from here on out. If I didn't feed my concinnus babies separately after the first few meals (they are OK at first but then later they start fighting) they would rip each other to shreds.

I wonder if the Concinnus from your area have some type of bacteria in their mouths that most other snakes don't? Sort of like cat bites, but different as all cats seem to carry uber-nasty germs.

For the record I am feeding off tongs which GENERALLY allows me to lead one off while the other is swallowing; I am not giving them a dish full of food to share as that would almost certainly invite problems (or even two dishes as one would finish first and no doubt try to steal food from the other). I am used to feeding six canines and separating all of them, so aggression and food fights between large beasts are nothing new and I am sure I could manage to break up these little babies just fine! Now dealing with meds and infection would be a whole different ballgame!

Since they are still skiddish the feeding time is the best time to get them used to me, and catching them to put in a container seems to freak them out.

[ConcinusMan]

Who knows. Just try getting cut or poked by a knife covered in fish slime and see how fast you get infected.

Happened to Chantel too. I should clarify that I was exaggerating. Didn't happen every single time but often enough. There have been fights where they bit each other in the mouth area, and maybe even drew blood, and nothing became of it. Also, the swelling and infection usually didn't happen when it was adults. It was more of a problem with neonates. I feed the same way you do, but when I was dealing with 20, 30, or more babies in one tank, it's a little more difficult than keeping two of them apart. Some are very aggressive and fast. You blink, and they're biting each other.

When you're dealing with a lot of them, I have to let one take a bite, then scoop him out into a separate container to finish since as you were saying, catching and putting in a separate container makes them freak out and not want to eat.