Rush's Thamily!!

[guidofatherof5]

I don't think you should be too concerned. Keep the shed box clean as garters love to poop in water and moist areas. Less then 3 weeks since the last shed is nothing to worry about without other indicators that she needs to shed.

[Albert Clark]

I don't think you have much to worry about bc shedding is a cycle that has to run its course. It can vary on the duration and coincides with food intake and growth. Scale rot doesn't usually occur from just moisture it comes from the associated unsanitary conditions of the enclosure floor as well. Just be sure to go in and change the substrate or at least spot clean.

[Tommytradix]

She shed for me about once a month you have to take into account that she is a runt and won't grow much more

[Rushthezeppelin]

I figured she just liked taking saunas lol. She seems to just love water in general. In the the tank these are eventually going into I've built a water feature (almost done with the waterfall but the pond is complete) and she absolutely LOVES swimming in it. She goes diving in it and flicking her tongue around all underwater and trying to probe the rocks for crevaces (I made sure to fill around the big rocks with tiny pebbles as much as possibly so they wouldn't get stuck or have a rock roll onto em). Can't wait to get the rest of this big project done. And yes I've been changing PT bedding every 2 days since they got here (sometimes only one day if I fed them the same day as the last change....little poop monsters lol).

[Rushthezeppelin]

Wow so I buggered up.....but got very lucky. Last night I got in my Delilah's viv to give her some worms, she's in shed but even then she rarely turns down a meal (far from a problem eater lol). So I turn lights off and go to bed, wake up today and go to work. A full 8 hour work day later I drop by my apartment before having to make a swing by my office only to find that I left her viv wide open (this is a wood viv with sliding glass front doors and maybe a 2" lip so nothing at all to stop her). Amazingly she was curled up near her basking spot, still nice and in blue. She went probably about 20 hours with her viv open and didn't even think about escaping. Granted she was mostly blind in shed and a full belly, so she probably doesn't want to do much of anything besides bask at this point. I still have to think I'm doing something right though in my husbandry (besides obviously leaving the viv open ><) to have that happen.

[guidofatherof5]

I have some that refuse to leave their enclosure and others that plot against me for a split second escape.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Joans been plotting on me. I rearranged their thank to have one of the branches kinda pointed up a bit. Sure enough I come home and she's gotten herself half wedged up over the rim and under the topper >< Good thing I have about 3 lbs of bullets in boxes holding down one side and 2 clips on the other so it's "should" be escape proof. Of course you never know when a snake will pull a Houdini on you like Albert's corn did lol. Still seems doubly odd that my WC is the one without even thinking about escaping when given almost a full day to do so and one of my CBs is probing the defenses like crazy on the other tank ^_^

[Albert Clark]

Nice Rush. You have the fantastic club garter enclosure haha. They are all in the sauna or otherwise enjoying themselves. Mine are in 10 gallon quarantine tanks. I did try to make it comfortable with the varying temperate zones and a couple of hides. But that was a kingsnake and her first night in a new enclosure. Lol. Actually her second night so still very much acclimating.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Speaking of acclimating, Joan finally ate her first decent enough meal to where I could see a bulge in her belly. Good sign that she is finally getting comfortable. Also Delilah just had a perfect shed yesterday morning and ate a pink again (fish scented although I wonder if I needed to as she seemed more like she just wanted privacy for her meal than the fish smell). Eliza is same as always, super active and super hungry lol. I think she's already put 1 1/2" to 2" on in her last two sheds.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Been a good while on updating. As of the other day though Joan and Elizah are out of quarantine and are now being cohabed with Delilah. I decided to use the opportunity to go ahead and get them on a bioactive setup. I would have done them in the 40 I was working on but I keep changing my mind on how their water feature and such should be done and ended up deciding to go ahead and look at even bigger before they get the water feature as their land was only going to be 2x2 and I felt they will outgrow that fairly quick. So I decided to go ahead and do a bit more of a basic land only setup in a 20h I have for the time being. The 40 is going to be used for the plant filtering sump on the water feature so I wanted it available for that.

So far everything is great and I gave them time to meet eachother in the open area of my bedroom where I can easily coral them but not make them meet eachother in a more confined space. Joan and Eliza were just as interested in her as she was of them. She didn't shy away, just lots of tongue flicking So far they have been doing awesome in the setup and I've caught all three in a big ball in the basking spot once so far

Looks like all 3 are going into blue though. Eliza is definitely deep in blue (only way you know with albinos ^_^), Delilah just started clouding in her eyes today and Joan is probably a few days or so from being noticeable (she's had white scale tips for about a week) in her eyes. They should do great though, most people doing bioactive with snakes report great sheds even with previous problem shedders. I have plants on the cool side that I keep pretty well watered and also Delilah surprised me by burrowing under the water bowl right next to the plants effectively making a wonderful humid hide. Warm side is still bone dry with the substrate and 40%ish humidity so they have plenty of area to dry out if need be.

Pics inc.