Update on the young San Francisco garter snakes...

[Thamnophis]

Eight of the ten young San Francisco garter snakes that were born on May 17, 2012, are doing very well. They eat voracious (salmonfilet, smelt, chicken heart) and have no problem when I put a small bit of multivitamin, calcium and vitamin B on the food every now and than.

Regrettably two of them refuse all food that I offered, including earthworms, small snails, etc.
They now are a bit skinny, but seem healthy and still are quite vivid.

Yesterday I placed the both of them in a small plastic box with very moist substrate and put them in the refrigerator. They get a short brumation in the summer. I think I will let it last for three weeks.
I have done this before the past years with a few young San Francisco garter snakes and young Mesoamerican Highlands garter snakes (T. fulvus) that refused to eat.
After the short brumation most of them started to eat and are still doing well. Only one tetrataenia died very soon after the brumation. But this one was very, very skinny. I waited too long that time to start the brumation, I think.

I expect that these two start eating after the brumation without problems.
I will keep you updated.

On the first two pictures you see two of the eight juveniles that eat very well.
On the third picture you see one of the not-eating juveniles that is sleeping in the refrigerator.

[chris-uk]

Thanks for the update, and particularly the information about using a short brumation to try to stimulate feeding as I'd not heard about that before. Keep us updated with the outcome of that.

[guidofatherof5]

Very nice. Keep those updates coming. They are always welcome.

[gazzamann]

nice san frans

[Invisible Snake]

Thanks for the update and pics, have you ever tried force feeding as a last resort?

[Dan72]

Very cool. Love the San Francisco garters, great looking snakes.

[Thamnophis]

Thanks for the update and pics, have you ever tried force feeding as a last resort?

Yes I have. But the specimen that had to be forcefed for a longer period did not grow, suffered lots of stress and always died after a while. So I do not do this anymore. The brumation of a few weeks during the summer is the last effort. If this does not help, I put them to "sleep". But the results up to now are very encouraging.

[BUSHSNAKE]

good luck with those guys

[-MARWOLAETH-]

I hope you get the stubborn ones eating and the rest of them continue to thive

[thamneil]

That's a very different approach to stimulating feeding. I will keep this in mind with my next litter.