bigsnakegirl785
10-14-13, 05:17 PM
I got a baby male albino checkered garter snake last Wednesday, and he has yet to eat. I know I haven't had him long, but I know garters are supposed to eat more often than boas or pythons. I was wondering how long he could go without eating before I should get worried? So far, I've tried feeding him twice. First, I cut pieces off of a Canadian worm, and today I tried to feed him some feeder fish. He showed no interest in either of them. I guess I'm trying to feed him too often, so I'll wait until this weekend or next Monday to try again if that won't be too long?
He's in a 5 gal tank with a few small box hides and paper towel bedding. The hides were the smallest I could find, but they are very large for him so I may cut them into flat pieces. I also broke off pieces of the styrofoam he was shipped in, and set them on top of the paper towels, to give him some tighter hiding places. So, roughly 50% of the ground is covered, but he spends most of his time under or between his paper towels, and usually moves "underground" if he travels around the tank. I recently took off the paper surrounding the tank as the paper was falling apart and brown, but I will be replacing it. He has a water bowl in the middle of the tank, but I'm going to replace it with a plastic lid if he won't be eating fish. His ambient temp is 75F, with an 80F hot spot provided with a heat lamp that is turned off at night for a night-time temp of 70F, and the temps stay very stable. The heat lamp is lifted about 8in off the top of the tank, and the basking spot gets up to 85F if it sits right on the screen. I had it set up like this the first 2 days, but he completely avoided the hot side so I figured it was too hot. He now switches regularly between hot and cool sides.
He does still have a dark spot from his last meal, so maybe he just isn't hungry yet? He's been pooping tiny, white, runny poos with dark spots, so I'm guessing that's a result of a fish diet? Other than removing him from the deli cup when I got him and switching out his bedding from a spill, I haven't handled him. Is there anything I need to change, or should I just give him some more time to settle in?
Here's some pics I took when I got him. (The date on the one photo is wrong...)
My hands are super tiny, so he looks a lot bigger than he really is in this photo. He's smaller around than a hair tie, and roughly 6 or 7 in (although I'm not good at guessing length).
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/IMG_0099_zpsb52c7b2e.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/IMG_0099_zpsb52c7b2e.jpg.html)
You can see the bump near the tail, and it's moved further down since this was taken.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/IMG_0635_zpsc6a1d434.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/IMG_0635_zpsc6a1d434.jpg.html)
He's in a 5 gal tank with a few small box hides and paper towel bedding. The hides were the smallest I could find, but they are very large for him so I may cut them into flat pieces. I also broke off pieces of the styrofoam he was shipped in, and set them on top of the paper towels, to give him some tighter hiding places. So, roughly 50% of the ground is covered, but he spends most of his time under or between his paper towels, and usually moves "underground" if he travels around the tank. I recently took off the paper surrounding the tank as the paper was falling apart and brown, but I will be replacing it. He has a water bowl in the middle of the tank, but I'm going to replace it with a plastic lid if he won't be eating fish. His ambient temp is 75F, with an 80F hot spot provided with a heat lamp that is turned off at night for a night-time temp of 70F, and the temps stay very stable. The heat lamp is lifted about 8in off the top of the tank, and the basking spot gets up to 85F if it sits right on the screen. I had it set up like this the first 2 days, but he completely avoided the hot side so I figured it was too hot. He now switches regularly between hot and cool sides.
He does still have a dark spot from his last meal, so maybe he just isn't hungry yet? He's been pooping tiny, white, runny poos with dark spots, so I'm guessing that's a result of a fish diet? Other than removing him from the deli cup when I got him and switching out his bedding from a spill, I haven't handled him. Is there anything I need to change, or should I just give him some more time to settle in?
Here's some pics I took when I got him. (The date on the one photo is wrong...)
My hands are super tiny, so he looks a lot bigger than he really is in this photo. He's smaller around than a hair tie, and roughly 6 or 7 in (although I'm not good at guessing length).
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/IMG_0099_zpsb52c7b2e.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/IMG_0099_zpsb52c7b2e.jpg.html)
You can see the bump near the tail, and it's moved further down since this was taken.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/IMG_0635_zpsc6a1d434.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/IMG_0635_zpsc6a1d434.jpg.html)