Randall the Wandering Gartersnake

[Albert Clark]

Yikes! Big time male. Body proportions including the head size really fooled me. What a large male. He definitely needs a girlfriend right away. Very nice.

[Jeremy Perez]

So sounds like we've got ourselves a bit of a circus freak here

My son says he saw a couple others slipping out of sight while he was walking past a nearby drainage canal last month. That canal is usually dry, but I guess there must be enough occasional water to keep a population going. I might have to explore around there when spring rolls around & see if I can find any unswarmed females coming out of brumation.

On a totally separate note...
Cats aren't the only ones:

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[Jeremy Perez]

So the brumation chamber got moved out to the garage about a week ago. Temperatures are running 52°-65°F. I expect that upper temp to keep getting lower as we close in on winter and I've got the thermostat & heater set to keep it from getting lower than 50°. After reading the recent discussions about dehydration, and noticing a couple times when peeking in that he was hanging out in the water bowl, I picked up some sphagnum moss. I refreshed the water bowl today, added the moss and sprayed it down. I'll mist it down every 2 or 3 days and hopefully that's healthier than just the bowl.

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[guidofatherof5]

Not sure the misting is needed as it might create mold opportunities. Soaking she take care of all the water needs.

[Jeremy Perez]

Steve, thanks for that guidance. I probably misunderstood what was being discussed about the sphagnum moss. (Because of the mold concern I was thinking I'd have to swap it out every couple weeks, which seemed a huge pain.) Anyway, if the water dish for soaking is sufficient, I'll not worry about the rest of the substrate. Thanks again!

[Jeremy Perez]

Update on Randall. This was my first time navigating care for a snake that wants to brumate. Fortunately his activity, personality and food are back on track.

Late September — he went off food

First week of November — I put him into semi-brumation in a darkened tank in the garage with a small heater and thermostat to keep the temp from getting below 50 degrees F.

First week of January — I brought him back indoors in his large enclosure and set the lights & heater to 6 hours a day for starters. Tried his favorite — nightcrawlers — but he just flicked & moved on.

First week of February — He was seeming more active & hunting around, so I tried the nightcrawler action again and this time he went for it with gusto.

Today — I finally attempted the switch to frozen pinkies. I was apprehensive about this, but it wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be. I found that our local PetCo has them in stock & picked up a bag of three. While one of them was thawing in warm water, I set Randall out on the table with the leaves & climbing rock we set up for his field trips out of the enclosure.

Once the pinkie felt thawed, I scented it on a nightcrawler, brought it out to the table, and he went for it with no hesitation. As a sort of post-brumation celebration, I let him have a second one and he was only too happy to scarf it down.


I’m just immensely relieved that he went through four and a half months without eating, hopefully metabolizing slowly for half that, and is back to his Hungry Hungry Hippo self.

[Eddie]

Awesome!

[guidofatherof5]

Great update.

[Albert Clark]

Great to hear he's back on schedule with the feeding. A reason for him staying off food for the January to February timeline once you brought him back indoors to his enclosure ( normal temperatures) is bc he was in breeding mode after being cooled. Normally, after coming out of brumation all the males want to do is wait for the appearance of the females. They typically won't want to eat until after they have mated. Nice job..