Eastern (I believe) won't eat

[NovaPrime9]

Hi, Odie!

And thank you all for your input and caring. I'll let you know how it goes! If anyone can ID my garter please let me know what he is.


~Nova

[Snakers]

Your right hes a beautiful eastern, and also Hi from New York

[Snakers]

also if you want to go up to a walmart near you they sell 10gallon fish tanks for 10-12 dollars which is the best prices ive ever seen

[NovaPrime9]

That's absolutely on the agenda, as long as this guy actually starts eating. Once I know he intends to stick around, I'll get him a 10gal tank and of course a mesh top. What else- last snake I had was probably about 30 years ago. What's good for the substrate? I used to just use cedar. Is that still ok? Is a light or heating pad/stone necessary? We do use the a/c during the summer, so it's definitely cooler in here than he'd be outside.

[Snakers]

Please don't use cedar shavings they are very bad if ingested and overtime can kill the snake so pine and cedar are a no-no if aspen is available use that but for now newspaper and paper towls a great,cheap, and easy to clean!
And also try to buy guppies for feeding if your with fish, because goldfish are highly dangerous so look out for them so gl and keep us posted on him/her

Edit: oh man i forgot if your going to use heat a heat lamp would be great dont use a heat stone your snake will be burnt! And if your snake is burnt its means more money at the vetAnd hopefully you snake will live a nice happy life with you, snakes are very educational and me as young as I am know quite a bit about them but they teach me new stuff every day!

[NovaPrime9]

Wow, great info on the wood and the heating stones. Thank you. Does the same apply for those heating pads as well?

No change in the snake today, though I'm not surprised. It's freaking COLD here today!

[Mommy2many]

Welcome from CT! Could take your snake a couple weeks to adjust to the new environment and come out of brumation. Keep trying worms and maybe salmon from fish dept. at local supermarket. Nice save!

[NovaPrime9]

Hey guys,

I'm sorry I was gone for so long. But I wanted to report in with you to let you all know that the brumation thought seemed to be correct. It's warmed up a little here in NJ, and he started eating worms right away!

I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, but between being a cubmaster and a baseball coach (and father of three), time is just no friend of mine! But I know how worried I would be if I didn't hear back on a board like this, and would probably assume the worst. So I wanted to poke back in and let you know that he's doing great!

Thanks again for all the thoughts and ideas. My son is so thrilled that we can keep him!

[ConcinusMan]

That's great news! you should really try to get him to eat pinky mice. you might have to smear them with worms for the smell, but pinkies are very good complete nutrition. Worms are not, and need to be fed to him very often.

Full spectrum, low intensity florescent lighting does wonders for garters and I would highly recommend a 40 or 60 watt ceramic heat emitter (placed outside a metal screen top so he cant get burned) about 12 inches above his tank on one end. Keep it on during the day only. This should result in the cool end being about 70 degrees and about 85 under the heat emitter. Sounds like your garter will do well.

[Snakers]

Great update!