[dekaybrown]

Great !! Hope you have a big litter of little neonates.

I can relate to the horrors of failure at birth, We keep a big tank with 3 adult dekay browns and 2 smaller male garters.

Without my knowledge Casper (the male DK) had mated with Athena, I never even noticed she was gravid, one day while I was not home, Athena had given birth. (That "collapsed" look fat>starved looking in one day was my clue) but not one single baby snake?? well 2 days later the garters had calcium deposits in their poop,. Not much calcium in an earthworm!!

So the Garters have been moved, and Casper is getting released before any more mating occurs. (2 successful and one failed litters of dekay browns was enough for me)

Wal mart sells clear totes that are really tall for about $5-$8 that would be baby proof. a neonate garter cannot scale an 18 inch slick wall.

If you were to keep any number of babies, you will NEED to separate them within the year, or by 18-24 months you will have siblings doing the nasty with each other.

Neonate (baby) Garters are almost exclusively started out feeding tiny little guppies. Baby earthworms and baby night crawlers work but are very difficult to get unless you live very rural. (We have tons)

You also need to feed them in an enclosure with NO substrate, or cage carpet or newspaper. I have watched a baby snake choke to death on coconut hair, and found a dead red belly one morning with it's mouth packed full of the same stuff. My BP had bark in his poop from swallowing a chunk with his mouse.(previous owner did that, he's a rescue)

Thanks for sharing your excitement, I enjoyed reading this whole thread.

Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey