Over the Hump

[stonyloam]

Guess what? Taking care of a bunch of baby garters is an interesting and frustrating task, but I think it will get easier from now on. As far as I can tell all of my remaining babies are eating, and most are eating both minnow and worm parts. Lost a few from my two gravid Maritimes, some (5) to the tape (stupidity on my part), and 6 more just died. Don’t know why, but they were pretty small to begin with, seems the larger ones did the best. Guess some are just doomed from the start. The ones that I was really worried about were the babies from Chloe (formally green girl), they were really tiny (mom was a small snake) and skinny less than 1 ½ mm thick. Had 9 and lost 2, but they have all eaten now, even the tiniest one. Whew! This has been quite an experience with a very steep learning curve. Thanks everyone for sharing your knowledge.

[drache]

Terry
I'm happy to hear the hard part is over
I think Chloe may only be a year old
she is substantially smaller than my two-year-old females
your babies were all pretty small - amazing
I do think the survival rate for the bigger ones is higher
perhaps that's another good reason for species with small offspring to have larger litters - to improve the odds

[stonyloam]

"I think Chloe may only be a year old
she is substantially smaller than my two-year-old females"

To tell the truth I had no idea she was gravid when I caught her, and only figured it out a couple of weeks before she gave birth. What do guys know?

[Elliot]

Congrats on getting all the babies to eat. I only have 4 babies so I can't really imagine all the feeding you have to do!

[drache]

I didn't realize mine was gravid, until a couple of weeks before
I'm sure it would have taken me longer, if there hadn't been all these gravid snake and baby pics around here at the time
Chloe must be one tough little snake
and she has a wonderful personality

[enigma200316]

glad to hear that everything is well keep up the good work and keep us posted......

[GarterGuy]

Glad to hear that the babies are doing well.

[Thamnophis]

Well done!!!

[Snaky]

Good job taking care of all those babies, congrats on them eating!

[adamanteus]

Respect for all the hard work you've put in, Terry. Glad to hear they're all eating now.