Greetings from Michigan

[Mommy2many]

Welcome from Connecticut.

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard.

[Selkielass]

Status report- She still hasn't eaten.
Have tried Crickets, guppies, minnows, garden worms, nightcrawlers, and she has a couple garden slugs sharing her vivarium right now.
Problem is all the slugs in my area seem to be monsters- found four tonight and they are all this size;

[guidofatherof5]

Status report- She still hasn't eaten.
Have tried Crickets, guppies, minnows, garden worms, nightcrawlers, and she has a couple garden slugs sharing her vivarium right now.
Problem is all the slugs in my area seem to be monsters- found four tonight and they are all this size;

Remember, Ditch the crickets. They don't eat them.

[Selkielass]

Ditched them the day after. I've been trying one new food a day.
Now if I can only get her over her shyness about eating.

[guidofatherof5]

Ditched them the day after. I've been trying one new food a day.
Now if I can only get her over her shyness about eating.

You are over a big hurdle. The scrub is eating. It's all down hill from here.
Before you know it you'll be eating out of your snakes hands(metaphorically speaking) Wait, I meant your snake will be eating out of your hands. No, I was right the first time

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, Selkielass

[ConcinusMan]

Hey selkielass, sometimes a garter wants to eat but is too "freaked out" by the giant offering the food. I have a northwestern garter that just won't eat most of the time unless she has privacy from me and other snakes. Sometimes I just take her out of her tank and put her in a (escape proof) box by herself with some food and give her 20 minutes or so of complete privacy. I come back and she has eaten all of it. The rest of my garters could care less and eat out of my hand.

Sometimes it can take a week or even three to adjust to captivity. If the snake seems sturdy and not thin you have time. Don't worry too much about a few weeks as long as there is no obvious rapid weight loss.

Best time to offer food is after the snake has started it's day, warmed up fully to about 80-85 degrees. That's when they naturally start foraging for food. Full spectrum lighting helps.

Keep in mind that if a snake is nervous or uncomfortable, feeding response may be inhibited. Concentrate on making sure the snake feels secure and comfortable. Perhaps make a little cardboard box hide for the snake and warm it up in the morning. Let it go into it's hide and place the food in there. I guess what I'm getting at is the snake is more likely to eat if it's warmed up and feels safe. If it's darting around and scared of you, it's not going to eat even if it's hungry.

[Selkielass]

thanks so much for your thoughtful reply!

We hanve a 10 gallon tank set up for her in the living room furnished with a well baked russian olive branch, a heavy crystal ashtray of water (Grandma would probably be bemused to see waterford 'wasted' on a snake, but this is a non smoking hose, so this is the first use its seen in years.) a small slab of slate for sunning and a homemade coconut shell hide. Reflector light over the rick brings the temperature on that side of the habitat up to 90 degrees.

She's definitely not darting around in a panic. She spent most of her time curled up in her hide with just her head poking out, watching. She came out for a while when the living room was relatively quiet, but retreated into her house when things got a little louder.

I've had the best luck getting her to eat by dropping a worm in, then leaving the room for a while- she doesn't seem to want an audience.

I'm very hopeful. She is very mild mannered and calm when handled- perfect temperament so far for a family pet.

I'll get out my jewelers scale and weigh her later, and see about another photo session. (The last photos failed to upload to the computer for some reason.)
She's quite plain colored compared to all the fancies I see people showing off around here, but her 'conformation' is lovely. She has a sweet face and a most elegant, delicate, smoothly tapering tail. (Thus my guess that its a she.)

[gartermorphs]

She's quite plain colored compared to all the fancies I see people showing off around here, but her 'conformation' is lovely. She has a sweet face and a most elegant, delicate, smoothly tapering tail. (Thus my guess that its a she.)

no garter snake is truly plain colored there all unique!