William's garter snakes.

[RedSidedSPR]

Kibakiba, Time doesn't matter to me, but you are doing the opposite of encouraging me. Oh well.

I think she's just making you realize the responsibility and knowledge required for something like this. I am pretty much just as capable as anyone to keep garter snakes, but I'm very hesitant to start breeding anytime soon.

[ConcinusMan]

I was going to breed NWs. I can wait extra time if needed. And I was hoping for at least one like the female. I don't expect them all to look the same.

I was hoping to produce this color:



Red, Black, and Orange.. I can't see if it shows the colors well or not, the colors on my monitor are really bad. You can't see it at all because the colors are backwards of what they should be. At least for me, that is. By the way, I pulled that picture off of my Photobucket account. In fact, that's the female I want to breed.

I can see it just fine. Not all NW's have lateral stripes but when an orange or red striped one has lateral stripes, they're almost always a different color (lighter, cream colored). This particular snake's color/pattern combo is actually fairly common so chances are pretty good you can produce them especially if you match the pair and if they are from the same population. Babies won't be born with the red coloring though. That comes in gradually when they are months old so you'll have to keep all the babies for 6-12 months to get any idea what color they are.

I caught this huge girl in Vancouver, WA. She was 2.5 feet and the biggest northwestern I've ever caught. I traded her off to Don Belnap but she wasn't in the best of health and she was old and didn't live long. Same as yours though, pretty much. She had babies. Maybe Don still has them? I dunno.

[kibakiba]

You know, if you're not ready for the responsibility of caring for babies, you shouldn't have them. You do have to realize that it isn't about me discouraging you, babies are just a big responsibility. You have to be prepared to take care of them. If you can't do that, it wouldn't matter that you wanted to produce that colour, because they'd die.

[frostyftw]

I am prepared, and I can take care of them.

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, they can be a PITA especially if you get a lot of them. Just so you know it's not nearly as easy as keeping a few adults.

[frostyftw]

Alright, I kinda knew that it's more difficult......

Thanks to everyone who helped me...... Sarcasm.

Anyway, I got on to ask a question about a gravid snake....

Here it is, it comes with a story.

So, I think I've figured out which snake had that litter of only one snake... For a while, One of my snake has a huge lump by it's cloaca.

I'm positive it's a baby. The snake isn't all that big so it's very noticeable. I've seen it stay near the bottom of the snake, by the cloaca.

The next thing I know, it's slightly pushed up... Then it goes back down... It's like the snake is trying to keep the baby inside.

Now the question is... What does this mean and what should I do?

[guidofatherof5]

Photos would be great and a Vet. visit is probably called for.
Any kind of lump or blockage can be a serious thing.
A Vet's advice is needed.
If it is a baby then a Vet's intervention is the best way to go.

[ConcinusMan]

What he said ^^^. There shouldn't be any lumps near the cloaca. That doesn't sound like it's a baby. Whatever it is, baby or otherwise, it's life threatening if it won't come out.

The membranes (not the baby itself) is attached to the mother's blood stream by small vessels so she can provide gas exchange. That's done much higher up. Once they detach and shift down toward the cloaca, (during labor) they must come out very soon, or they'll suffocate. If something is that low, near the cloaca, and stayed there, it's probably dead and can cause mother to become septic as it rots. Either that, or it's something blocking her bowel, in her digestive system.

[frostyftw]

Crap. It's been there for a while... A few weeks maybe? This isn't good.

What makes it worse is I can't afford the vet, we are having money problems... The vet charges just to give an opinion... They charge even more to do work on the animal.

My mom once saved up like 500$ which took her a long time.... My cat was acting funny so we took her to the vet and it costed like 450$. all they did was do an "examination...." And give her some flea medicine....

[EasternGirl]

I'm not sure what vet you are going to...and I'm not saying vet's aren't expensive...believe me, I hear you...but that is outrageous. But my vet charges me like $80 for a visit. Where are you? We can probably find you a reptile vet near you...you can call and talk to them on the phone and explain the situation. Most vets will allow for payment plans...every vet I have been to allows for that. If you can give them something...they will probably allow you to pay the rest off as you can.