Gail's garter - the snake kind silly.

[kueluck]

Just because I love them, and today I kissed Zena when at the Vet office. Yup, that's right, I'm a snake kisser and I'm not ashamed. I should put that on a t-shirt.

Mona 11-2-12.jpgSadie 11-2-12.jpgZena 11-2-12.jpg

[thamneil]

I remember when you joined this forum and only had your Zena. Kind of shocked after reading your signature! I see you're building up the army very quickly

[kueluck]

Neil, I set my personal limit to 3. It is/was Zena, Cleo and then I was getting one more, but didn't know what or when. The plan was to have a bigger cage to house 3 adult females. So when I went to the Myrtle Beach show this past summer I got Mona. Scott held her through the day so I could see the rest of the show and when I went to pick her up later on in the day he said I could have Sadie at no charge. How could I say no to that. The only question I asked was "is it a female?", he checked, said yes and I said thank you. Days later I asked how old she was. I think he gave her to me since she was only 4 days old when I got her. We still pray for the return of Cleo and when I see pic of the T.S. parietalis my eyes well up. If Cleo does not return by summer I may get another one. I think they are one of the pretties garters out there, at least Cleo is.

[ConcinusMan]

After all this she was breathing kind of hard and was kind of, sort of wheezing, or maybe more like a whistling sound, then stopped once she calmed down. She's got a 10 am appointment tomorrow at the Vet.

Attachment 7363

I don't think that's anything to be concerned about. The breathing symptoms you mentioned is most likely just because the old skin is very tight which is why they need to shed in the first place. It's very common for snakes at shedding time to require extra effort to breathe, especially when oxygen demand is high. Sometimes this is accompanied by a whistling sound.

I'm more concerned about why she is consistently having shedding issues. That often indicates an underlying health condition.

[kueluck]

This is the first time she's had a problem with shedding. Otherwise she just walks right out of it.

[kueluck]

I just watched a YouTube video of a garter having a seizure, and it was breaking my heart. And all the posts that have been popping up about this has me really concerned about feeding my girls tilapia now. I get mine from Whole Foods but I think I’m going to switch back to salmon or to rainbow trout. I just figured it was better to feed a fish that was lower in fat.

[ConcinusMan]

Any carnivorous fish such as salmon or trout is going to be higher in fat than tilapia (they are vegetarians). Contaminants such as PCB's are present in the fatty parts of the fish. Heavy metals are found in the muscle, but concentrations are higher in the meat along the spine. There's no need to panic about farmed tilapia. Given the other options, it's one of the safer fish. One just needs to make darn sure there is nothing added, such as trisodium phosphate, or any preservative for that matter. I don't just say these things at random. I've spent many hours researching. You can always do your own research.

EDIT: I also wanted to add that the smaller the fish, the lower the contaminants, when compared to larger fish of the same species. That's because they accumulate the toxins over time. If they're small, they haven't had as much time to accumulate the toxins.

[RedSidedSPR]

I'm gonna trust Richard on this one. He knows what he's talking about, and I can't find anything online that contradicts what he's saying, so..

[ConcinusMan]

New warnings about mercury tell seafood buyers to beware - US News and World Report


They used to have farmed tilapia on this list. although I can't find it now, it was near the bottom of the chart, which is a good thing:

List of Seafood Health Alerts - Seafood Selector - Environmental Defense Fund

[kueluck]

Thanks guys, I just know I couldn't watch one of my girls go through that. I really don't want to remove fish from their diet unless I really have to.