This video helps so much ! Just unexpectedly found babies in my garter snakes tank , there so so little information about caring for these little fellas on the internet so this really help
I saw the cages you showed on video.just so you know my mother snake Sabrina is doing fine and her two babies as well.im learning a lot more about taking care of them and in a way they teach me themselves.they let me know what they want.just yesterday one baby ate three times for me, including taking food right from my fingers, and I set up a pool for them to swim in with fake plants and other hiding spots.they loved it.this coming month I'm going to upgrade all their cages and continue on my journey with them.keep up the great videos.ill be watching.👏👍👋😁🐍
Great job! There isn't a whole lot of information about garters so I really appreciate it! I thought hognose information was hard to find! Garter information is even harder!
Thanks. I would love to breed garters someday, so this helps demystify the process a bit. You mention going from daily feedings to transitioning to less feedings with a litter over time. How do you judge when that is?
Brian Orr great question! In my opinion, it’s based on some variables. For example, some breeders “power feed” their babies, in an effort to get them to breeding size, as quickly as possible. I choose not to do this. Here is what I do (directionally).... Birth to 2 months - I offer food every day. This is in an effort to get them well established and build some strength and mass 2-4 months - every other day 4-9 months - every 3 days At 9-10 months, they are likely 12-14” and able to eat full pinkies. At this point, the growth curve usually takes off 10-18 months - every 4 to 5 days I can’t stress enough that this is directionally what I do. Some species grow faster and will eat more. You can easily feed more often and grow them faster, but at the risk of shortening their life. You can also gauge feeding times by observing their behavior. They will usually start hunting when they get hungry. You can also gauge the feedings by how much weight they are putting on. If they appear skinny, increase the size and/or frequency of feedings. If they start to become obese...dial it back. I think that it’s important to understand that there is no set feeding schedule for all garters under all conditions. That’s my two cents 😀
@@bldunn68 Thanks for your guideline thoughts. This is incredibly helpful, considering I probably wouldn't have found this info unless I asked. I agree that power feeding and potentially shortening the life expectancy would be something I'd want to avoid. Breeding age will come along eventually. Thanks again
My garter just had babies today I've found 10-12 so far. I can't remove them yet because the enclosure I planned for them is now getting used for a different snake. I wasn't 100% sure she was even gravid. I was making holes in a tub and decided to put on a video to listen to. It's crazy I just started to wonder if they could get through and then you showed what you use. Like that's a sign if I ever saw one!!! So off to Walmart I go...
I'm very impressed and interested in your videos.so far my mother snake and the two babies are doing fine.recently little precious snake shed and she's kinda been hiding a lot lately but I coached her to eat and she did.ill be changing up their cages soon since they are growing up so fast.but I'll continue to watch your videos and if I have any questions I know who to ask.👋😁👍
Amazing tips. If you have small night crawlers - say 1-2" long red wrigglers - do they need to be cut or only the larger 5-6" night crawlers that you would fish with? Lastly, how often should they be fed?
Great video ❤ Is a 20 gallon long will be good for 2 garter snake ? And if so How long they can live in it until they need an upgrade to a bigger tank ? Thank you
Again, great video! I bought a pair of those herb scissors!as you suggested. In the past, I have always chopped frozen pinkies with a knife before they thaw. Is this the same with these scissors?
You can do that, but it dulls the scissors very quickly. When the babies are really small, i just use the scissors to mince the pinkies into tiny pieces. It's messy, but I just mix the worms, pinkie goo and sometimes fish and they love it
Agreed. Look in the background and you will see a stack of empty tubs. I set a clean one up and move the snakes, then clean the dirty one and repeat. Thanks for the reminder to cover that point
Phillip Lukas most of my heating is under tank heating that is either on thermostats or dimmer switches. Overhead or belly heat is fine. You will find that people will argue why one is better than the other. This seems to work for me. The units in the background are from Dragon Reptile Enclosures and Racks. You can find them on Facebook
I have fed the baby garters twice now. The second time worked better, I had a higher proportion of night crawlers to pinkies. Question: do you clear the soil Out of the nightcrawlers’ guts before chopping?
im going to breeding next summer when my snakes are big enough. garters that will produce some very lovely morphs. But when you feed them do you put a dish with food in there and let them all eat at once because i had an accidental litter once and i had on baby start eating another doing that and im just curious how you do your feedings because after that i was spending 4-6 hrs a day feeding 39 babies and i wld like to maybe stream line that process a little for my litter next year. great video
Trista White Dove it’s very common to have food fights with babies. What I do is monitor the feeding. That allows me to do two things... 1) break up the fights, if necessary 2) determine who the food bullies are As I mentioned in the video, i separate the shy eaters. I also will separate the most aggressive eaters if they consistently pick fights. It doesn’t take long to get it all figured out. After several feedings, it should be as easy as putting the dish in the enclosures and lightweight monitoring
It's actually very easy to care for baby snakes.my snake gave birth to nine babies.five were stillborn,two didn't survive more that twelve days,but the other two are doing well.they just shed their first skin and now momma snake is going to shed as well.also,the babies are doing so good that sometimes they actually eat from my hand.i feed them earthworms and cut them up in quarter inch sections and feed them.this is the first time I had a pet snake give birth.its an amazing experience.i love them so much.🐍
You can separate them as soon as mom is done having them. There is a low chance of cannibalism, but no real good reason to keep them in there. In the wild, they scatter right after birth
Hello Brett so i have a question i got a baby garter snake today and I'm having trouble if i should feed it worms or pinky mice he is so small so i need something small anyone else have any ideas to? feel free to answer my question
Hi there! I'm planning to get a baby garter snake soon and was wondering if you have any tips or recommendations for the tub/enclosure size? Would a 15 x 23 x 16.5 cm one be too small? (Brand is exo terra if that helps any). Also while the snake is growing, how big and often do I need to upgrade the enclosure? Thanks!
My main recommendation is to keep them in glass tanks, if possible. Behaviorally, they turn out so much better in tanks...less skittish, for sure. The size of the enclosure really depends on how many babies there are. A 10 gallon is fine for up to 10 babies, for the first month or so. I do use 30g tubs for the first few months, when we're feeding often and the babies are constantly making a mess. The tubs are easier to pick up, move to our prep table and clean. After that, I use 20g long screen topped tanks. They are inexpensive and I can keep 4-20 babies, depending on size in there.
