Female garter snake sick

[ioulios]

I bought 2 garter snakes, 1 male and 1 female, (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia) about 2 months ago from a reptile exhibition. I have kept them together in a terrarium and have been feeding them frozen anchovies and occasionally live fish. I have been also giving them B2 vitamin/Riboflavin as I was told to do from the man I bought them. For the past couple of days the female has been in a very bad shape with minimized movement. I thought that her condition may be caused from the environment she was living in (maybe due to excess humidity) so I moved them both into another terrarium. Right now she is lying on the floor of the container with her mouth open and frequent convulsions across her body (maybe due to faster than the normal breathing).The other one seems just fine and he is right now curled up on a branch and looks perfectly healthy. I don't think the female has a lot of time left but could please someone give me some advice? Or if you have similar experience could you share it with me please? Thanks a lot guys!

[Char361979]

Might be resp issues. What kind of substrate are you using?
What temperature is the terrarium?
What's the humidity like?

Could equally be the food you are using. Stop feeding anchovies. They are VERY bad for garters as they contain thiaminaes. Check out this link:
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husb...fish-list.html
This is a list of safe and unsafe fish to feed. As you can see anchovies are at the top of the unsafe. Garters all tend to eat the same things. Worms, pinkies certain fish. Our guys and gals like salmon. Hake and trout are other options. If you are feeding live fish, stick to guppies. Pinkies you can by frozen from any reptile shop.

Keep a close eye on the male. Might be a good move to separate him out from the female just incase she does have some kind of infection which she could pass on to him.

[guidofatherof5]

Sound advice Char.

Welcome to the forum. I wish it was under better circumstances.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

It sounds alot like vitamin b deficiency to me. Could have been caused by the anchovies. You might could try giving her higher amounts of vitamin b to see if you can save her if not you need to start the male on some vitamin b and change his diet maybe to pinkies and nightcrawlers and the occasional fish. Good luck and i hope everything goes well.