Greetings from Ohio

[gordonthegarter]

Oh we know plenty on how tricky cats are with cages! I've lost a few hamsters and a budgie and some finches to cats before. She has lid clips on her cage both so she can't escape and so the cats can't open it. Her cage is also ontop of iggy's and my ceilings are at an angle so there's no room for the cats to get on top of it (plus it keeps Iggy from pushing the lids off his cage and escaping! [actually he just sits on top of the one lid next to the heat lamp but still] But might get him this nice 40 gal atrium tonight which has a better lid)

That and since my budgie's in my room, only 4 of the cats are trusted to even be in here, and all are supervised while in the room. No animals come out of the cages if the cats are in here! Door is always closed to keep those brats from getting in here.

[acovert]

What a pretty girl! My boyfriend and I just recently found what appears to be a male T. Ordinoides (Northwestern). It's so much fun finding garters, and even more fun when they become a part of your family.

Do be careful with the cats, as Steve said. My cat doesn't care about my little boy (Cuddles, also Northwestern) if I'm with him, but if I'm not there he starts to show more interest, so I have to keep a close eye on him all the time. He seems to think that Cuddles is a wiggly piece of string.

My house is a zoo!

I love having a zoo My family has a cat and a dog and two goldfish, but when you walk in my room there are two beta fish, 20+ community fish, 2 adult snails, 30 baby snails, 2 hermit crabs, a cat, and a snake. I have a zoo in my bedroom!

[guidofatherof5]

Oh we know plenty on how tricky cats are with cages! I've lost a few hamsters and a budgie and some finches to cats before. She has lid clips on her cage both so she can't escape and so the cats can't open it. Her cage is also ontop of iggy's and my ceilings are at an angle so there's no room for the cats to get on top of it (plus it keeps Iggy from pushing the lids off his cage and escaping! [actually he just sits on top of the one lid next to the heat lamp but still] But might get him this nice 40 gal atrium tonight which has a better lid)

That and since my budgie's in my room, only 4 of the cats are trusted to even be in here, and all are supervised while in the room. No animals come out of the cages if the cats are in here! Door is always closed to keep those brats from getting in here.

Sounds like you know what you are up against.

[gordonthegarter]

Thank you :3 she is quite a pretty little girl! The pet store up the street has a reptile beauty contest every summer, maybe I should enter her this year and your new snake is such a cutey! Always read how corns are more docile and calm than garters, but I haven't met one garter who wasn't nice (except when being caught the first time but that's understandable!) as apposed to the young corn my dad saved from being hit by a car who tried to kill him. Then there was the 8ft boa my brother's friend ran over with his car who was VERY unhappy with him when he tried to get it out of the road to a vet! (he kept that snake too)

The first garter I wanted to bring home was half paralyzed because my grandma let her cats in the backyard and they got him. It had been an old injury so he was obviously doing ok, but it was just so sad. Only found him because their one cat had him cornered in a bush! That one didn't care about being held at all (then again it was getting cold out and only his front half could move to try to get away) I love going out to find snakes. Last summer went on a hike by the marsh and found 15 water snakes! At the apartment complex we used to live at i almost caught a very pretty black garter, but it got away in a chipmunk home (and boy was the chipmunk not happy! Fired out of there like a bullet!!!) This little one just happened across our path and took me a bit off trial to get her but it was worth it! Even after a couple attempts to bite. Great hiking pal and met a very nice family who's littest boy wanted to pet her (and oldest was unsure but did it anyway cause his dad egged him on lol!)

And oh dear is our house a zoo! We have 4 dogs (one of which we found as a scared, skinny, dirty, flea bitten stray and his family gave him too us), cats (not even going to put how many cause you'd think we were nuts but most of them we didn't mean to take in!) an iguana, a budgie, the last of our community fish just died and we're taking a break from them so we can paint the living room, my dad wants finches again soon, and 1 chubby guinea pig. Should start charging people to come in and pet everybody!!!

Definitely know what I'm up against with these felines. Two of them are the ones who got my first budgie 11 years ago (team work and we think we know which one actually ate the poor thing). 2 of the trusted ones have been well suprvised around other pets and are actually afraid of them and declawed (seriously, the one wouldn't even look at the starling I had even when it was pulling her ear because if you don't see it, it's not there). The other two are two of the kittens we raised over the summer since they were 7 days old and have been allowed in my room since then, but still not trusted with animals out of the cage and NOBODY is trusted with them out of the cage and unsupervised! Too many things can go wrong way too quickly with cats around. Love them, but they are huge brats and think if they want it, they're entitled to have it!

[gordonthegarter]

Offered Violet her two fish, more interested today than before but still not too keen on them (I think I have 2 tiny feeders for pets now )

Offered her a still squirming around third of a crawler from a couple days ago (those things are tough aren't they?) and she very happily ate it up! Found one of the other thirds and cut up a new one and she ate it all. 5 crawler thirds makes for one chubby happy Vi!

violetfat.jpg

Happy chubby snake who probably would have kept eating but I didn't want to over feed her and she already had a slight buldge. It's so cute how they wipe off their faces! Her plate's a bit messy, no? Lol. Need to get her a better eating tray and a better place than on my bed

So happy she ate finally! And since I got her new "pool" one side of it has no substrate built up next to it (between the side and the wall) and guess where her new hidey spot is. Though now she's digesting under her log / hut, though wasn't too happy being put away. I got the "mommy keep me out and play!" look.

How long after a feeding can you hold the snake again? Don't want to upset the snakey tummy.

[guidofatherof5]

You can wait 24 hours and run the risk of getting it from the other end

[Foxrun402]

Yup.... 24 hours after eating night-crawler while being handled....


And when you wipe it off... it will not smell pretty at all lol

[guidofatherof5]

A garter snake victory.

[gordonthegarter]

So in other words, wait for the poop then hold

It's weird, but they're so cute eating! How they readjust their little jaw into place and wipe their little mouths off when they're done! And the focus. And of course try to get a video of her attacking it and what does she give me? 30 seconds of staring down the food until the second I hit stop, then BAM! Sneaky sneaky. I swear all animals know when they're being filmed and they just stop doing what they were going to do until the camera is off! Did get video of her chowing down though and a really nice pic of her bout to eat that really brings out her colors

[guidofatherof5]

No, hold the snake. Getting pooped on comes with the care.