T. eques cuitzeoensis behaviour

[chris-uk]

I think these guys are different enough, and relatively undocumented enough to start a thread with some observations.

I'll start with one that worried me, but I'm now putting down as normal behaviour.
1 - Staying submerged.
I've seen our checkereds in their water bowl, moving around submerged for maybe 20 seconds. I'm currently watching our female in her tub of water. Her body is completely submerged in a tub that is a little under half her body length long and half as wide again. She's laying motionless in the water fully submerged. I watched her for a while before thinking she'd drowned herself... It had been between 5 and 10 minutes with no movement, so I gave her a poke and she moved.
Since then I have timed a couple of spells where I can see her head is definitely submerged. First spell was 7m 48s before she casually stuck her nose up for 10s, then back down for 3m 38s, nose up for a few seconds, then back down for 3m 25s. She's now laying motionless in the water with her nose above the surface.
The water is at night time room temperature of 20.5 centigrade.

So my first conclusion, is that these guys need a lot of water in their permanent viv. This evening the female had spent a lot of time in the water, this latest observation is at 2:30am, after I decided to sleep on the sofa - the snakes are on a table in the living room until their viv arrives, and 20 minutes ago I woke up when the cat knocked something off the table. I'll sleep here tonight to deter him from investigating the new arrivals too closely.

Has anyone else seen this sort of submarine behaviour in other garters?

[guidofatherof5]

Yes. I have some radixes that like to just sit on the bottom of their water dish for what I think is an extended period of time.
They know what they're doing so I don't worry anymore.

[chris-uk]

Thanks Steve, so it's not just the cuitzeoensis. I'll have to try harder to find something unique about them. :-)

Around seven and a half minutes seems to be her limit, I've now timed her for that long 3 times. She seems to show no sign of moving from the water. I'm looking forward to watching them through glass, rather than the slightly opaque plastic that they are in at the moment.

The female has been out lots so far, the male has stayed hidden most of the evening.

The other thing I will try with them is tong feeding in the water to see if I can encourage aquatic hunting behaviour. One of our checkereds will take food in her water bowl, so I'm sure that this girl will too.

[guidofatherof5]

T. eques cuitzeoensis. That's pretty unique.

[chris-uk]

Good point Steve. They're bringing out the suppressed biologist in me. I'd love to be able to stimulate their tail hunting behaviour in captivity. :-)
Now I'm supposed to be sleeping not watching the new snakes, they're just too exciting. At least the cat has decided to sleep on his cushion since I came downstairs and has stopped watching the new snakes.

[guidofatherof5]

Don't forget to update your signature.

[katach]

Our baby NW likes to submerge as well, thus his name Fish Bait. Also, I read somewhere that if they have mites they tend to soak more, not sure if it's true our not as I have never dealt with mites before.

[chris-uk]

I don't know about mites and soaking more. There's no sign that they aren't 100% healthy, so I'm happy that soaking in the water is because they are amongst the more aquatic garters. Char read on Steve Bol's website that they can even be kept in a viv that has majority water and relatively little dry land, and that they don't appear to suffer from the skin complaints that other garters do in higher humidity. I'm not sure we'll go with a lot of water, but will definitely give them more water to play in than the checkereds will have.

[guidofatherof5]

Check the bottom of the water bowl for little round specks.
Snakes will soak to drownd the little buggers.
If you find something place it on a white paper towel smash and smear it.
If it's a mite it will leave a blood trail or dark brown/red stain.
It's probably nothing but it's better to check and make sure.

[zooplan]

Do you remember this?
Thamnophis eating a fish (underwater) - YouTube

It´s another but Meso American specy!