Why you should not go away...

[d_virginiana]

Yikes! Glad you got to them in time.
That picture could be used as a preventional poster...

Once Harley is big enough to let Houdini try to mate with her, feeding will be taking place in two separate containers. I just don't think it's a good idea to mix a blind male that has never been around another snake with one who is very intense about food... Seriously, you can put your hand down near the food dish or even move Harley around to do tank maintenance while she's eating and she just stares you down. IF she moves, she picks up her food and takes it with her. It's a food fight just waiting to happen.

[EasternGirl]

Yeah...I don't think it would be a good idea to feed a blind snake with any other snake...aggressive eater or not. Just seems like an unfair advantage to the other snake.

[Thamnophis]

@ Easterngirl... I have too many garter snakes to separate them every feeding. Would take too much time. But with a few snakes I think it is the best to feed them separate. That's wisdom.

@ D Virginia... prevention is the reason why I posted it.

[mikem]

Love how you captured this! I've had this happen a couple of times with smaller snakes housed together during feeding. Luckily, I've managed to save the one being devoured every time. Nothing gets in the way of a hungry snake!

[Selkielass]

Good save!
So glad you intervened in time.

[johnc79@hotmail.com]

Phew lucky you got there on time. Its almost happened to me but has soon as I open the viv one lets go! Its an easy mistake to make thouso thanks for the post to stop complacency.

[EasternGirl]

Yes..this is a great post. I once tried an experiment...I tried feeding my female and male eastern together just to see what would happen. My female is a pig and an aggressive eater. I was right there ready to intervene the whole time, of course. As soon as the male took a piece of food from the dish...the female quickly went over and stole it from him and chased him away. My male was so traumatized by the event that he wouldn't eat for months after that. I have never fed any of my snakes together since then. I know it will be more and more difficult to do as I get more garters. But for now, I always make sure to have a separate feed tank.

[Thamnophis]

Talking about pigs...

These ladies also belong to them. But since they have a new terrarium that is bigger, things are better.

[Stefan-A]

Interesting. The 2 food fights (and the 2 assassination attempts) I had to break up involving vagrans, had one snake grabbing the other by the neck right behind the head. Seemed very deliberate, I don't think that's just what they happened to grab by accident.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Those lucky buggers...