What are your thoughts on housing and feeding neonates?

[chris-uk]

One of the forum members had a useful method for keeping and sorting litters. They kept a litter together and fed communally, but after some period started moving non-eaters to a separate container so that they could be given more attention.

For neonates I'd favour a plain substrate, paper towels, just to keep a better view of everything. But I've only had one baby born, and the other babies I've had have been at least 5 weeks old.

[gregmonsta]

I am happy with my experiences from my first litter. Paper towel for substrate with a normal sized waterbowl (to scale with what I do with the adults). Kept in small groups of 4-5 in tubbed set-ups (I use old old school conticos for housing the little ones). Fed in groups with small food chunks until well established and then tweezer fed larger items (still in their group enclosures). Of course, the groups gradually got smaller .

Ps - forgot to say - the one non-feeder was separated and eventually brumated to kick-start feeding.

[Stefan-A]

Solo housing, paper towel substrate, two paper towel roll hides, a plastic cup cut down to suitable height as a water bowl, a small food container with moist moss or paper towels for a temporary humid hide, feeding in situ.

Moss is a bad substrate. Keeping it clean is difficult.


I house them in these. I normally put them up for sale when they start to outgrow the second from the top.




The sizes are 3, 9, 13 and 18 liters (give or take).

[Selkielass]

Groups of 6-8 housed together in small aquarium.
paper towel substrate, changed nearly every day.
Damp sphagnum moss in a plastic container hide, dry hide over paper towel..
Shallow water dish.
Food chopped to around the size of their heads.
After a week or two it becomes obvious who isn't eating by size.
Runts get along fine together so long as abundant food is available for grab n runs.
Tiny garden worms kept wet stay appealing the longest.

[Greg'sGarters]

Just to inform everyone, when I said paste. I said it out of lack for a better word. I meant a dish full of bits of each of those. NOT an actual paste, like sloppy. I don't even know if garters could eat an actual paste. Just to clear the air on that one.

[MasSalvaje]

I am happy with my experiences from my first litter. Paper towel for substrate with a normal sized waterbowl (to scale with what I do with the adults). Kept in small groups of 4-5 in tubbed set-ups (I use old old school conticos for housing the little ones). Fed in groups with small food chunks until well established and then tweezer fed larger items (still in their group enclosures). Of course, the groups gradually got smaller .

Ps - forgot to say - the one non-feeder was separated and eventually brumated to kick-start feeding.

Same here Greg, I follow a very similar routine and have been pleased with the results. I have not breed on a large scale by any means but I have had the best luck with paper towels and a large water bowl with a hide and the occasional misting. I ran into some problems when I tried to keep things moist. It was probably just me but I usually ended up making things too wet which led to a new set of problems.

My protocol for the couple vagrans litters I have dealt with has been slightly different that the one above. I am much more cautious about groupings with the vagrans than I am with other species.

-Thomas

[Steveo]

I think a lot of the scub management techniques are dictated by number and size of litters and available resources.

I feed mine individually so I can go about my day and come back an hour later without any worries... but I have 6 garters and 6 tupperware containers, so it's easy. A few years from now when I have 50+ to look after, I might do supervised group meals. I could probably get one of those baby racks that hold like 60 at one time, but I don't know that it would be worth it. Garter scrubs are so small that I'd still worry about them escaping.

[Magnarock the 2nd]

Im not familiar with the term "scrubs". Its a baby garter?definition?

[CrazyHedgehog]

tiny little baby garter snakes = scrubs

[Magnarock the 2nd]

Do any of you use NEWSPAPER over paper towels for a community?