[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Wayne, my upside-down checkered albino did things very similar to yours after birth, but he does not appear outwardly different, his eyes look normal... and he started feeding on small live fish a day afer being born. He has taken to being a little more right-side up now, but still has issues, like you said, doesnt really know up from down and left from right. When he gets excited about feeding time he often "jumps" around. He is growing normally like his sister, but she too now displays the occasional "i am special" signs. I believe my garters are stargazers. This is a genetic defect that has already shown itself in several heavily bred species like ball pythons and corn snakes, and the albino checkered garter as we all know, is a heavily inbred snake and it does not really surprise me! Both my male and female are now dead, I am pretty sure the guy lied to me about their age, health, and being unrelated to one another. The female had health problems until the day she died. The clutch Upsy-daisy and his sister came from were all jellybeans except for them and one other who died shortly thereafter.

I think your little garter is just a genuine birth defect, considering the rest of the clutch was healthy and is feeding and showing no signs. I just had to put down a little guy before my trip, because he had not eaten, refused to drink, had a slightly odd shaped head, and was grotesquely thin only two days after being born. I used decapitation, seeing as from what I understand, freezing is painful. A snake that is expieriencing pain or is ill at the time of death will often flip upside-down when they die, while a snake that is just old or passes on in their sleep, well, you don't even know they are dead! I froze a snake once and after seeing it upside down in the freezer I won't do it again.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do, Wayne!