First time parents - Now what

[infernalis]

Here is a few things that I have picked up along the way, and hopefully those who have done this before have things to add.

Just like many of you, either I or one of the kids has picked up a gravid snake and brought it in the house.

OK, now what? Hey this will be a really cool experience, I am going through with this (I did it, no shame there)

Now we find ourselves with a box/tank or cage with a whole bunch of tiny little snakes and hope we don't kill any while figuring this out.

Loss can AND WILL happen, it will break hearts, 100 percent success is rare.

Here are some pointers to help assist in raising your ratio closer to that magic hundred percent.

Keep children away, its best. My son sat a water bowl on top of a baby once, it died.

Garters like sticky foods, so aspen, coconut hair, sand, bark or dirt will readily stick to the food item, and can choke your baby snake.

They will fight over food, even to the death.. so as much as it seems like real work, feed them one at a time. I have had babies break siblings necks to get the food.

Baby snakes need to be left alone as they grow, yes they are cute, yes they will tempt you to maul them constantly. Truth is babies are delicate little creatures, and over-handling them can be harmful.

The only time our babies get touched is at feeding time and cage cleaning time. (and occasional photo shoots)

getting carried away with heating devices can and will cook a snake in a hurry, babies even faster. So if it is 80 or above inside your house, leave the basking lamp off, and forget about hot rocks.

Keep the tanks away from windows, radiant heat from the sun shining on them will also raise temps to lethal stages real quickly.

To all of you expecting or already in possession of baby snakes, best wishes, good luck and most of all, have fun.

Watching them grow is very rewarding, and interesting would be an understatement.

[Snake lover 3-25]

wow that's great help!!!!!! i will use ALL of that for Sooty's babies!!!!! thank you so much!!!!!!

[anji1971]

Oooops, we'll have to stop bugging them then. My one remaining non-eater ( the other ate a whole pile of worms last night) is very nervous to begin with, so maybe I'd better stop trying to handle him so much.
I'm not handling the ones we're releasing other than to relocate during enclosure cleaning.
Good to know, Wayne!

[infernalis]

Sadly, a lot of what I learned was through failures.

Ever witness a grown man try to give mouth to mouth resuscitation to a baby snake??

There is a wonderful product that I found, it is cheap, and attractive but best of all the safest thing I have found for little babies.

Cage carpet! Nothing for them to ingest, and loads more attractive than newspaper.

Now, this I have witnessed, more than once.

We raised some little babies up for 8 months, hand fed, handled, all of it.

Then we released them, weeks later when found, they were fully wild!

One even coiled up and pretended to be a rattlesnake, so there is no fear of "taming" them, once they hit the wild, instinct will take over just fine.

[jitami]

Ok, being brand new at this... well, we've had Sly for 6 years, but I figured out the basics and just went with it until finding this forum...

I'm wondering when, or if, you do begin handling them more frequently? One of the big draws of buying CB for me is the idea that the babies would be easier to socialize and calmer in the hands of humans? Perhaps I'm wrong in assuming this?

[Zephyr]

I, being a new daddy, have not had any food-fights since I switched to minced salmon/tilapia. If you offer them food for around 10 hours each day until they're big enough to take single food items you should have no problems, as each baby decides it's time to eat for the first time.

[jeanette]

im currently socialising my young Garters, ive found item association to be quite useful. i have a small feeding bowl and it is only put into the viv at feeding time and then its removed. im not sure how good Garters eyesight is at the moment but if im near the viv with the bowl they get very excited, if however im near the viv without the bowl in plain sight the go and hide away. im still working out if this is pure coincidence atm. but we will see.
i dont handle them very much at present but will spend time with my hands in the viv and they seem to have natural curiosity and have to slide over and have a smell of my skin.
thanks for sharing your experiences with us, they are very beneficial.

[KITKAT]

I suspect they see pretty well. My babies are on my desktop next to the monitor. When my husband is in the room, at his PC a few feet away, they ignore him. But when I come into the room, even before I sit down at my PC, they are at the front of the tanks, STARING at me.

I gotta get a pic of that!

im currently socialising my young Garters, ive found item association to be quite useful. i have a small feeding bowl and it is only put into the viv at feeding time and then its removed. im not sure how good Garters eyesight is at the moment but if im near the viv with the bowl they get very excited, if however im near the viv without the bowl in plain sight the go and hide away. im still working out if this is pure coincidence atm. but we will see.
i dont handle them very much at present but will spend time with my hands in the viv and they seem to have natural curiosity and have to slide over and have a smell of my skin.
thanks for sharing your experiences with us, they are very beneficial.

[jeanette]

yeah get a piccy of that, it would be pretty cool to see