Delilah the checkered garter.

[d_virginiana]

Edit: Also my truck recently started having problems so I only have my work truck which I can't go out of the way with. That means I might not be able to get fish for her for a bit (at least clean ones). I do have a petco on the way home though and I was thinking about buying some flukers to supplement her worms. Whats the recommended usage on a medium sized nightcrawler sized meal?

The flukers is the calcium supplement right? If she's getting whole prey (fish/pinkies) pretty regularly, you probably don't need to worry about supplementing. That's more for if it's going to be a long-term thing.

Also, I know for some species like with my frogs you need to avoid the supplements that have phosphorus added to them (sometimes they'll just say "added P" or something)... I've never used supplements for my garters so I don't know, but if you don't get another reply to this it might be good to start a thread asking about that. They can be really sensitive to certain things in their diet, so it might be good to double check with someone who has more info on that.

If it turns out it is a problem, cuttlebone is another good supplement. It's in the bird section. Just grate some off in a powder on the food. I use that for my turtle.

[guidofatherof5]

Great video showing wall hugging and heading for clothes. Typical garter moves. Nice job.

[Rushthezeppelin]

I like to let her out once or twice a day to pace back and forth on one side of my room. She just likes to explore and get exercise. Usually isn't scooting fast because she's spooked (although you can tell I did make her jump a bit in the vid lol).

[Rushthezeppelin]

Anyone else with some sage words on whether I need to suppliment if she's gonna be on worms only for a few weeks? She's been usually getting about 2 worms to 1 fish by weight on average lately (seems like the worms are helping her bulk up quick and catch up from the year out in the wild not growing much at all from a scrub).

[Rushthezeppelin]

Well I did some research on the whole worms and calcium thing. Hard to say for sure but it seems that canadian nightcrawlers actually do have some calcium content. Not sure how much or if it depends on their food source or what not. Seems to be very little research period done on these little creatures that are basically responsible for most of the growing soil on the planet.

As for Delilah she is getting more and more comfortable with me. Lately when I handle her she has made a game of slithering constantly through my fingers on one hand, not going hand to hand like she is trying to get away. She also holds on rather tightly with her tail, these little things have a surprising amount of strength, then again they are just a muscle tube with a head so I guess it makes sense lol.

Took her a while to let go of my pinky in this one, she was holding on tight with the side of her neck.


And of course everyone's favorite, knot practice. She seems to be trying to do a figure 8, maybe she wants to go rock climbing with me lol.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Well I just found out that my petco down the street sales frozen pinks. I'm gonna grab a few (is 3 for $4 a good deal?) here this afternoon and see if I can't get her to gobble one down scented with worm.

[d_virginiana]

Generally petco and petsmart don't have the best buys on mice (but it's a good place to get small numbers if you aren't sure what she'll take). If you can get her to take those, I'd recommend looking at somewhere like rodentpro or micedirect (online vendors) and buying enough to last several months. The shipping cost is crazy, but overall you'll come out cheaper than buying three at a time from petco.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Sounds like the same strat I use for buying gunpowder online (you have to pay a big hazmat fee with that stuff).

Well I've got two pretty small pinks in her feeding tank. Managed to find a super small nightcrawler in my tub to scent them with. Use half the worm cut in tiny pieces and smeared all over the pinks. Got her started with the other half of the worm, hopefully in the next 10 or so she will start looking at one of those pinkies with interest, might have to dangle it in her face though lol. If she doesn't take them or only eats one I'm assuming the rest need to go into the trash and not be refrozen correct? Especially after having worm guts smeared all over em.

[d_virginiana]

Yeah, after a few hours they need to go in the trash. Some people leave the mice in there with them, but I've always had better luck with actively moving them around. If the worm guts don't interest her, you can also try braining the pinkies. Or even cutting one open and leaving the organs on the feeding dish. I've had finicky young ones that were super interested in the way the organs smelled (mainly heart, lungs, and liver... never had one that wanted intestines yet lol). Just keep playing around with it to see what she likes

[Rushthezeppelin]

Well 15 minutes of sitting in her feeding bowl, no interest. Tried dangling and dragging for 5, still turning her nose up. I'll give her a little while longer now that she's seen one move maybe shell go for it. If that don't work I'll try the cut up pinkie to see if she likes the smell of organs.