An Albert Clark Offspring...

[Scubadiver59]

Picked up one of Al's worms last week but forgot to post some pics...

The blue stripes are starting to come in now but it doesn't show up in the photographs yet.

[EL Ziggy]

Very nice addition Scuba. Looking forward to seeing more pics as the little one grows.

[Minkness]

Omg I can't wait for mine!

[Albert Clark]

Thanks Sd! She looks amazing. Already missed over here. Glad she went to a good home.

[dave himself]

Beautiful snake mate, I'm looking forward to seeing lots more pictures of this wee one. @ Albert another fine specimen you produced there mate

[Andy_G]

Awesome! Looking forward to more pics as colours develop.

[dannybgoode]

Very nice. I have a tank that'd be ideal for some garters kicking around and I'm tempted to get it set up as I can source some nice stock at the expo next month.

[SerpentineDream]

What a cutie!

I have a couple of freshly minted CRS garter worms from Albert too. They are beautiful but they won't hold still for love or money, which makes pics difficult. They've got speed, too. I could enter them in a NASCAR race and if they avoided getting run over they'd probably beat those cars. I'll get 'em one of these days though. :D

[toddnbecka]

I received my new baby from Albert last week. Haven't seen her outside of the ceramic cave since I put her into the tub. Do the CA red sides take guppies from their water bowl like some other species, or should I try chopped earthworms first?

[Scubadiver59]

I tried fish first (make sure you do research on which species don't contain thiaminase which depletes vitamin b1), then mice parts, then mice parts scented w/fish...it didn't eat anything for the first few days. Finally, I tried chopped up night crawlers and she practically took the tongs with the food!

If you keep feeding worms, get some Reptivite to coat them with so the snake gets some calcium; or, do what I'm going to do tonight, scent some mouse parts with chopped up night crawler and offer that so you don't have to use the Reptivite.

I received my new baby from Albert last week. Haven't seen her outside of the ceramic cave since I put her into the tub. Do the CA red sides take guppies from their water bowl like some other species, or should I try chopped earthworms first?

[Albert Clark]

What a cutie!

I have a couple of freshly minted CRS garter worms from Albert too. They are beautiful but they won't hold still for love or money, which makes pics difficult. They've got speed, too. I could enter them in a NASCAR race and if they avoided getting run over they'd probably beat those cars. I'll get 'em one of these days though. :D Thanks.SD! They are blessed with the speed to do the impossible. Lol. Can't wait for the pics.

I received my new baby from Albert last week. Haven't seen her outside of the ceramic cave since I put her into the tub. Do the CA red sides take guppies from their water bowl like some other species, or should I try chopped earthworms first? Yes they definitely take mostly any fish that they can fit into their mouths. Especially live flopping fish that will add to a feeding response. Remember, these guys are red legged frog eaters
in the wild and have a affinity for quick movements to trigger a feeding response. They were all pretty much accepting pinkie parts cut up and scented with silversides and occaisionally with minnows. Some actually took whole f/t extra small pink mice. Fish should really be used as a scenting tool for pink mice parts. Feeding f/t silversides mixed in with the pinkie parts is a great thing. Minnow scented pink parts is irresistible for them. Mostly it's easier to put all their food in a shallow dish on the floors and of the enclosure and allow them to feed at their own convenience. Nightcrawlers are great also but are mostly moisture with minimum solid nutritional value.

I tried fish first (make sure you do research on which species don't contain thiaminase which depletes vitamin b1), then mice parts, then mice parts scented w/fish...it didn't eat anything for the first few days. Finally, I tried chopped up night crawlers and she practically took the tongs with the food!

If you keep feeding worms, get some Reptivite to coat them with so the snake gets some calcium; or, do what I'm going to do tonight, scent some mouse parts with chopped up night crawler and offer that so you don't have to use the Reptivite. True Sd, Reptivite should only be given occaisionally and not at every feed. Fish scented pinkie parts are a great choice as is nightcrawler scented pink parts. Try s entire a whole extra small pinky with either and see how quick the whole pink is devoured.

[Scubadiver59]

Minnow scented pink parts is irresistible for them.

True Sd, Reptivite should only be given occaisionally and not at every feed. Fish scented pinkie parts are a great choice as is nightcrawler scented pink parts. Try an entire whole extra small pinky with either and see how quick the whole pink is devoured.

Except for my worm...worms were all it had an interest in, and tonight I'm going to try worm-scented pinkie parts since I don't get XS pinkies where I order from. I'll let you know how that works out.

The good thing is that when I cut up the night crawler, I give the rest, and biggest part of the crawler, to my Anerythristic Plains Garter as a snack.

[toddnbecka]

I'm thinking to get some endler's livebearers to raise for feeders for a while, the feeder guppies at the lfs are usually infested with TB. Have a fair number of small cichlids on hand that will be suitable food when she's larger, good for scenting now though.

I haven't tried feeding her yet, was thinking to start with a small earthworm. Usually can find suitable size ones under the bricks outside the basement door. I remember reading somewhere that baby garter snakes eat earthworms for their first year. Seems to me they'd need calcium too though.

No red legged frogs locally, though I could round up a few small salamanders if necessary. There's a creek a short walk from my house, have found mountain dusky, spotted, and mud salamanders there back in the day.

I breed loads of mice, can easily snatch a few newborn pinks aka redhots out of a tub. How often should they be fed those?

[Minkness]

What is TB on a fish?

[toddnbecka]

Tuberculosis, highly contagious disease, though fortunately the strain that infects fish doesn't affect people or other warm-blooded animals. I wouldn't want to experiment with feeding infected fish to snakes to see if it would infect them too. Feeder guppies are typically kept in extremely crowded conditions, and naturally it spreads more quickly and easily. Looks like little grey lumps or tumors on the fish.
Back when I had hundreds of fish I raised endler's for feeders for some of those for the same reason. Not sure whether it would be contagious from eating infected fish, but not worth the risk. Unlike most guppies, endler's never eat their offspring, so you can relatively quickly establish a large enough breeding population from a dozen or two.

On another note, I found 2 really small earthworms, and the wee garter snake happily ate those. I simply prefer suitable size worms to chopping larger ones up, and buying a dozen large ones at a time most would die before they'd get eaten by such a small baby.

[Scubadiver59]

Personally, I use San Francisco Bay Brand Sally's Frozen Silversides for scenting, as recommended by Al...they avoid all the bad stuff wild minnows bring into play.

But, since the "worm" ate some of the night crawler-scented small pinky parts, I can avoid the Reptivite...and the Plains Garter did enjoy the crawler snack as expected!

[Albert Clark]

I'm thinking to get some endler's livebearers to raise for feeders for a while, the feeder guppies at the lfs are usually infested with TB. Have a fair number of small cichlids on hand that will be suitable food when she's larger, good for scenting now though.

I haven't tried feeding her yet, was thinking to start with a small earthworm. Usually can find suitable size ones under the bricks outside the basement door. I remember reading somewhere that baby garter snakes eat earthworms for their first year. Seems to me they'd need calcium too though.

No red legged frogs locally, though I could round up a few small salamanders if necessary. There's a creek a short walk from my house, have found mountain dusky, spotted, and mud salamanders there back in the day.

I breed loads of mice, can easily snatch a few newborn pinks aka redhots out of a tub. How often should they be fed those? I would ditch the backyard worms and the salamanders for sure. They both harbor endoparasitic loads and are not good in the long run. The cut pinky parts or whole extra small pinkies fish scented is a better, safer way to go. The backyard worms for scenting is also a safer approach. I wouldn't feed the worm to the snake. As in minnows ( rosy reds) are great for scenting also. Any newborn live pinkies should be accepted also although I haven't tried feeding any live pinkies to any of them. Hope this helps.

[SerpentineDream]

Tuberculosis, highly contagious disease, though fortunately the strain that infects fish doesn't affect people or other warm-blooded animals.

Fish tuberculosis actually *does* infect humans. However in humans it presents as a skin disease rather than a respiratory disease. If you have any cuts or punctures on your hand and reach into a fish tank where it is present that's how you would contract it. It's known as "fish keeper's TB." It's treatable though and wearing aquarium gloves every time you go spelunking in the tank is usually sufficient to prevent you from contracting it. I keep a whole lot of fish and that was something my doctor cautioned me about.

/hijack

I'm also going with Sally's San Francisco Bay silversides in addition to the smallest pinkies I can find in my freezer. The silversides are available frozen at PetSmart. They sell nightcrawlers there too.

In a pinch I have learned that scenting pinkies or pinky parts with the juice from a can of chunk light tuna in water renders them absolutely irresistible to baby garters.

[toddnbecka]

Huh, I never knew fish TB was a threat, never caught it myself in decades of fishkeeping, maybe because I avoided infected fish to start with.

Nice, tuna is probably cheaper than silversides. I'm thinking freezing some newborn pinks along with part of a can of tuna. When they thaw out they'll be marinated in the scent, and I can eat the rest of the tuna, lol.

[toddnbecka]

Fed the new wee one a newborn pinky (so fresh the mother was still eating the afterbirth) after I dipped it's butt in tuna water. Much quicker feeding response than to the earthworms. Left quite a bulge, hope it wasn't too big.

[Albert Clark]

Fed the new wee one a newborn pinky (so fresh the mother was still eating the afterbirth) after I dipped it's butt in tuna water. Much quicker feeding response than to the earthworms. Left quite a bulge, hope it wasn't too big.. That's so good to hear Todd! She was pounding food over here for sure. Mostly the last food item that was exclusive were the f/t extra small pink mice (whole). Sometimes mixed with cut up f/t Sallys' silversides. Congrats! Nice job.

[toddnbecka]

Peeked in on her tonight, and the "huge" bulge is completely gone. I didn't think she'd digest it that quickly, relieved that she did though, lol. I had offered her a similar size unscented pinky before rounding up the 2 small nightcrawlers last week. She seemed quite interested in the squirming little rodent, but wouldn't take it, so it went back into the litter. Hopefully it won't take too many more scented pinks to get her onto unscented, but at least canned tuna is cheaper than anoles. Two of the remaining 24 yearling Dominicans are still refusing f/t rat pinks, will only take f/t anoles.

[SerpentineDream]

I'm glad that worked for you. It also often works for other species. Hognoses go bonkers for tuna scented mice. This can backfire though. There was a lady on this forum a while ago (Jaleely) who even after washing her hands still had some lingering scent after eating a tuna sandwich. She went to handle her hoggie and he bit her and chewed. Her hand puffed up like a balloon.

[toddnbecka]

I'll be kicking myself if scenting rat pinks with tuna works on my 2 yearling Dominicans that are still eating anoles, lol.
On another note, I picked up a baby Abbott line Okeetee at a reptile show last Saturday. Set her up in another tub beside the wee Cali worm, and she very eagerly took a large pinky on Sunday.

[Scubadiver59]

Finally off of papertowels and on Forest Floor/Eco Earth mixture...still in a 10gal though. The "worm" is about 10" now.

https://i.imgur.com/9hLoNIS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JOrDTVq.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Gfq1bx6.jpg

[SerpentineDream]

My two seem to have taken the "worm" moniker literally. They spend most of their time burrowing under their bedding. I can tell where they've been because they leave squiggly tunnels that are visible from the bottoms of their tubs.

On feeding day I wave a day-old F/T pinky mouse around the inside of each tub until the scent reaches them. A little head will pop out, snatch the pinky and vanish again. That's it until next feeding time. They've already left me some tiny snake skins.

They were reluctant to take their first pinkies so I dipped them in tuna water. That changed their minds for them. Since then they've been good about eating unadulterated pinks.

[toddnbecka]

I misted the inside of the tub, my little female was in blue and didn't eat Sunday. Eyes looked clear tonight, so she'll shed soon and then I'll offer food again. I haven't seen any burrowing, she spent the first couple weeks using a relatively large clay cave on an elevated shelf for shelter.
More recently she's been hiding under the small black pvc hide on the substrate over the heat mat.