First successful litter of babies

[thamneil]

You can't find any slugs? Last time I was in B.C. There were slugs everywhere. I think they would probably be most likely to take slugs. Worms are good to. Do you have any bait shops near you? Pick up a pack of good old nightcrawlers. I wouldn't bother with fish and I can almost guarantee you that they wont touch pinkies initially. Get them feeding reliably on something and then start to incorporate the pinks. Any part should be safe to use.

I wish you good luck in raising the little fellows. What kind of colours did you get? Post some pictures if you get a chance. I would love to see them!

[KephrenJorgensen]

would unsalted, canned light salmon or tuna be safe enough? The link at the bottom of the safe/unsafe fish section in the caresheet suggest they are fairly safe. Im pretty sure that I can acquire alaskan salmon canned. This would be very easy for thebabies to consume and would smell pretty good. They don't have feeder guppies unfortuna tely, just fancy ones. The petstores changed their hours too. Until I can get worms and pinkies, I have no way to feed the babies, which are very lively today by the way. again, which parts of the pinkies should I avoid feeding to the babies?

[guidofatherof5]

No, it is processed for human consumption. I would not recommend it.

[KephrenJorgensen]

Okay, thank you. I don't know if any bait shops have nightcrawlers this season. I will check though. Slugs are enthusiastically by every Garter I've had, but small ones are much less common, and I don't know if anyone's tried to cut up slugs, but it is very difficult. I will definitely get to the park near by and find some slugs and see what I can do with a razor blade.

[KephrenJorgensen]

The colors I got are mostly normal or reduced, since the mother was a wild caught melanistic. The father was most likely a normal ordinoides. One is lacking the middle stripe. Im almost positive one has no stripes. Two look like normals, but their entire color scheme so far is melanized, so take an ordinoides and make it mostly black and grey. Most of them have grey or tan stripes, but it looks like one has a reddish orange middle, and bluish gray side stripes. One snake is entirely normal looking. I will post pictures of momma and the babies as soon as I locate my camera, it disappears every time I use it to take pictues of animals.

[chris-uk]

again, which parts of the pinkies should I avoid feeding to the babies?

If you have pinkies and the other options aren't available at the moment, the pinkies are worth a try. There's not any parts that you should avoid feeding them, it is more a case of cutting to bite size pieces. Chop the pinky when it is frozen, I tend to take the legs and tail off for little snakes, then it's a case of removing the head and cutting that up, and the body. When I see the internal organs I usually separate the liver (I want to make sure it's eaten as it's excellent nutrition).
The other thing to look out for if you're cutting through the pinky is that you don't leave loops of skin, I once had one where the top of loop was being swallowed and the lower part of the loop was under the lower jaw making it impossible to swallow (I cut the loop to free it up, but I have a pair of dissection scissors to hand which a sharp and very precise).

[KephrenJorgensen]

I found some nightcrawlers at a gas station. Though I dont plan to feed the snakes this late. They have a ton of frozen herring and anchovies, which of these two would be best, if either are worth it fort he variety?

[Invisible Snake]

I found some nightcrawlers at a gas station. Though I dont plan to feed the snakes this late. They have a ton of frozen herring and anchovies, which of these two would be best, if either are worth it fort he variety?

Herring (Leucichthys artedi areturus) are on the forums care sheet of safe fish.

Anchovies (Engraulis mordax) I found on another forum to contain thiaminase and are unsafe to feed to garters.

[zooplan]

Cogratulation, I remember the first litter was a big moment in my live
and big trouble caring for the little scrubs
Now I feed baby snakes each two to four days, knowing that they´re able to survive several weeks
and catch up all missed meals when strating to feed regulary.

[KephrenJorgensen]

Ive got bad, good, and better news. I'll start with the bad. The babies have 0 interest in worm bits. The good news, the babies ate some salmon I found in my freezer. The salmon came with a code I could use to find out who caught it, when, how, and where. It is wild salmon from just south of the alaskan,bc border. I only observed 6 eat, broke up two food fights. The two snakes with the basic brown colour of ordinoides didnt eat while I was around. It is easy enough to tell who`s eaten upon observation though. Hopefully they`ll be plump when I get home. The better news is that I found frozen Herring caught in Canada. My hope is that the snakes will take to these as they did with the salmon. I still dont trust BC`s fishing industry right now, primarily because of all the salmon they killed off and recalled. So far so good though. The babies are lively today. I come in the room, and they go from one end of the tank to the other in a split second. Momma snake, who I`ve decided to now call Mephista, due to her melanism and rainbow colour( In many angles of light, she reflects blue, purple and yellow) eats voraciously. My camera went missing, so I will have to use a phone camera for pics. I will do the best I can. I should have pics posted later this evening.