What are your thoughts on housing and feeding neonates?

[Magnarock the 2nd]

When you have newborns, say in a sterilite with moist sphagnum moss, how many do you feel comftorable co-habbing? Do you feed them communaly in the enclosure? Or do you take out each one individually to feed in a seperate container? Or do you believe in housing them individually? I think moist sphagnum moss would be the ideal substrate for baby garters. What do you believe in or have experience doing?.

[snake man]

I don't have an experience but I would say that a litter can be together in one enclosure for a few weeks or until they get a little bigger and feeding can be done all together just make sure you watch them closely during it. Any moist substrate should do.

[guidofatherof5]

I group feed but others separate. I would be worried about a constant wet/damp living area but it should keep the little scrubs hydrated.

[Greg'sGarters]

For baby garters, what I do is that I'll split up the litter into groups of 1 dozen per 10g. I take a short rubbermaid, melt a hole in the side, and fill that with moist, borderline wet, sphagnum moss. I place this on the warm end of the cage. It allows garters to stay hydrated when they need to, without keeping their whole enclosure damp. Garters need to be able to have access to a wet area as well as a dry area ESPECIALLY when they are babies. Plus, that box also allows me to use as a base for hiding places. As for feeding, I'm going to try something new this year, I'm going to buy a blender and mix up worms, pinkies, tilapia, and some chicken heart and make a chunky paste with that with that. I might add some calcium & multi-v powder to add some extra nutrients. I'll put that on a dish and place that in their cage. If you would like to feed more solid food items (as I will twice a week) I'd feed them separately. Anyone think this is a good idea? It's an easy way to feed the babies, while getting them used to a wide variety of foods when young.

[guidofatherof5]

I don't think the blender idea is going to workout the way you think it is.

[Greg'sGarters]

Oh. Would a dicer be better or just stick to earthworm bits?

[d_virginiana]

I don't think I'd like the idea of feeding paste... Sounds like a food fight waiting to happen, especially in groups, cause there's no way one could grab a chunk and go. They'd be covered in the food-goo (for lack of a better word...) and all congregating in the same place instead of grabbing some then backing off to eat it.

[Greg'sGarters]

Ok, sounds fair. I will probably just end up sticking earthworm bits on a dish and putting that in there, feeding them guppies, separately, twice a week - just so that I can know for sure that ALL of them are eating.

[thamneil]

Paste is bad. You're asking for dirty, nasty babies wanting to eat each other.

As for the setup, I don't know if I would go for sphagnum substrate. I like to house my babies on paper towel for the first while, until they are eating well. I find that it is harder to feed a sometimes unwilling animal on a loose substrate. Everything sticks to the food items and complicates feeding. That being said, a moist area is always beneficial. Perhaps throw some damp sphagnum in a deli cup and place that within the enclosure.

I tend to house the entire litter together in a suitably sized terrarium. I like the idea of keeping groups together and don't often have to separate them. At the end of the day, do what works for you.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Greg, now I am genuinely curious... What is the most babies you have ever had at one time and how long did you maintain them for?