Marnie's Snakes

[EasternGirl]

It just seems odd to me that he seemed to prefer it so warm before and now all of the sudden he wants to be cool...when it's colder. I don't think he likes the changes I made in his tank...since I put the platform in on the warm side...which is also odd to me since he likes being up high in his hanging plant under the lamp...I thought he would really like a platform under the lamp. But of course he is acting all weird and scared because I changed things around. On another note...Cee Cee is just about to Shed, and now Seeley is going to shed again. Do you think there is something with snakes that happens when they spend a lot of time together that they become attuned to each other or something?...because they both just shed a couple of weeks ago.

[mikem]

synchronized shedding! if they're roughly the same size and you're feeding them on the same schedule, then i would think that's why they're shedding at the same time. just a guess though.

[EasternGirl]

Well, Cee Cee is a lot bigger than Seeley...but they do eat on the same schedule and spend a lot of time together. I think you may have missed the back story...but I thought Seeley was a female and they were roomies for 7 mos...then I found them canoodling and found out Seeley was a male...lol. So, I separated them. Now, Cee Cee may be gravid. They love being together so much though...so I put them together a lot. I'm getting new...same sex roomies for each of them in the spring. I just thought it was very interesting that both of them are shedding even though they both just shed a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure why Cee Cee is shedding again...unless she is in fact, gravid...then that would explain it. And now...Seeley is shedding again...weird. Hermes just shed too...but he was due for a shed and he doesn't have any contact with them.

[mikem]

thanks for catching me up on the story... that's one way to sex them, lol! how long has it been since they last canoodled? their routine feeding schedule probably has them growing at approximately the same rate.

[EasternGirl]

Well the thing is...I only saw courting behavior...I never actually witnessed copulation...so I don't know if they have even actually mated. I have not witnessed any type of sexual behavior between them in a month...but Cee Cee was gravid when I found her last May...she had stillborns in August...and since females can store sperm and then use it to fertilize eggs for up to two years...she could have sperm stored from the male she mated with before I found her...or from Seeley at anytime up until now...if they mated...I suppose. I thought humans had complicated sex lives! On another note...Cee Cee finally shed tonight...but she had a rough time getting her shed off again. The poor thing struggled for an hour trying to get the shed to come off her face. I finally put her in a shed box but she just sat there freaking out...and I had an appointment and I didn't want to leave her...so I helped her slide it off. She seems fine now. Now it's Seeley's turn...his eyes are still cloudy... a couple more days for him. Hermes is finally back up in his hanging plant...I guess he finally decided to stop boycotting the changes I made in his enclosure .

[EasternGirl]

I always wondered why Cee Cee and Seeley looked so different...considering they are both eastern garters. I knew I had seen different colorings in easterns around here though. From the reading I have been doing in the Evolution and Ecology book, I now understand that there is a dark morph and a light morph for this species, occuring naturally in the wild, that is. Cee Cee would be a light morph and Seeley a dark morph.

[guidofatherof5]

I always wondered why Cee Cee and Seeley looked so different...considering they are both eastern garters. I knew I had seen different colorings in easterns around here though. From the reading I have been doing in the Evolution and Ecology book, I now understand that there is a dark morph and a light morph for this species, occuring naturally in the wild, that is. Cee Cee would be a light morph and Seeley a dark morph.

and both are equally beautiful.

[EasternGirl]

Thank you, Steve...I think so too...they both have different coloring that is quite lovely. Cee Cee is a beautiful light tan color and looks almost green sometimes, and Seeley is a dark brown with black checkered markings.

[chris-uk]

I think a lot of non-garter people would be surprised by the amount of natural variation you find within the same species in the wild. When you consider the range of T. s sirtalis it's not at all surprising to find that in different areas they have evolved colourings that are advantageous to the local environment.

I always think back to what I learned as a kid about peppered moth populations in the UK, where the population in more industrial areas became black as opposed to the normal white. A man driven evolutionary change, caused because the bark of the trees they used to settle on is a light colour, but pollution since the industrial revolution had discoloured trees by staining the bark with soot over a hundred years. So the moths living in polluted areas were black.

Multiply that principle up by all the natural variation in environment in the T. s sirtarlis range and you start expecting to see a lot of variation in colouring.

[EasternGirl]

That is really interesting about the moths. Seeley just shed and right now he almost looks like a light morph like Cee Cee...but he will get darker and darker as the days pass. Cee Cee will get darker too, just not nearly as dark. It is interesting how the colors change just on the individual snake as well.