Litter of Tiny Red Sided

[mb90078]

Parents produced by Jeff Benfer. Giving credit where due. The parents are very cool, and here's to hoping the babies follow in their footsteps (or slithermarks as the case may be).

And if anyone's feeling particularly bored, let me know if you think I'm right with my count of 23 or so.

[guidofatherof5]

I got 23.

[katach]

Amazing little scrubs! Congrats!

[twostripes42]

I got 23 to very cute I love baby garter snakes. You know I could take a few... or all of them of your hands.... maybe?

[zooplan]

Congratulation, nice breed.
Each year the first babies are looking like the tiniest ever to me

[chris-uk]

Congratulations. Looks like a great litter of scrubs.

[Dan72]

Great group of young ones. Thanks for sharing the pics. Was this your plan (breeding) with the pair, it sounds like the litter was unexpected. What are your plans for the litter?

[EasternGirl]

Congrats on the babies! I was also worried when my eastern female had babies and I saw the tiny size of the little scrubs. They were only about 4 inches long when they were born, and their heads were the size of the head of a matchstick. I now have an albino red-sided who is about the same age as my baby easterns...about a month and a half old...and the red-sided is about the same size as the easterns. From your pics, the scrubs look to be a good size. Just feed those little ones every other day like I do mine and they will start growing faster than you will believe!

[mb90078]

It was only unexpected in the sense that I thought that they were past the common gestation period. I haven't decided on any long term plans for them yet, but the short term plans are obviously to raise them, starting with getting them eating.

Speaking of which, I dug up some tiny earthworms that I frequently find by my house. I gathered maybe 15 or so, having heard horror stories about people having difficulities getting babies eating. At first, the babies all seemed scared of the worms (tiny tho they were), until one finally decided to eat one, and then many of the rest joined in. I used up all but one or two of the worms i dug up, which really surprised me. Next feeding, I'll split them up to get a good idea of how many are interested in eating vs those that are not. For now, I'm just happy that a majority ate on the first attempt.

And thanks for the headcount verifications...I may have graduated college, but I never was good with numbers.

[Invisible Snake]

Hey did you brumate the parents?