New here, question about my snakes

[drgngrl116]

Hello there! I just signed up for this forum and I wanted to ask a couple of questions. First. I have two garter snakes, they are in a, I believe 20 gallon aquarium. They are about 2 feet long each (I got that from measuring their shed skins) Well, I got them because an old roommate of mine decided to catch a garter snake from belle isle and brought it home. She was about 4 feet long. And well, they thought it was a boy until she had about 60 babies! So, as I've always wanted a garter snake, but didn't want to catch one out of the wild, being afraid it would adjust to captivity, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to keep a couple, seeing as they were born already in captivity. But anyhow, my snakes won't eat anything but worms. I tried to feed them guppies once but they were too lazy to catch them, (The guppies started breeding! )and they don't even look at crickets once. (The specific type I believe I have don't eat mice, we tried to feed them to the mother and she wouldn't touch them) And lately, my slightly bigger of the two (Ninja) doesn't want to eat (Oh, I feed them separately too, I have a little five gallon I transfer one or the other over to for feeding.) And I am afraid of them biting me. I used to pick them up all the time and they've never shown any signs of aggression until a few months ago. I picked one up (Monster, the smaller of them) and he snapped around and tried to bite me! I dropped him in shock, though I was sitting on the floor so he only fell about 4 inches, but now I'm afraid to handle them at all! I use a bent hanger and get them to crawl onto and then support their back end so I don't hurt them to move them into the feeding cage. (Oh, they are about 3 years old by the way) Is there any advice, or am I just hopeless and a wuss?

[RedSidedSPR]

Welcome to the forum

Ok, first measing skins doesn't really work the skin stretches so it's longer than the snake. Try this

try scenting. If you want them to eat fish, cut up some worms and put them in with the fish. If you want them to eat pinkies, cover the pinkies in worms slime. (rub the worm on the mouse). Just make it smell like "food".

Don't feed crickets. They won't eat them anyway. They can't digest the exoskeletons even if they did, and it can kill them..

My snake just went off food too. It's normal. It may be a month before he eats again. Just keep offering food, every few days, and he'll snap back in soon

Don't worry about them biting you. It doesn't hurt at all. you probably won't even bleed. If they do bite you, try not to jerk away or you can injure their teeth. You need to hold the snake, and he'll get used to you. Forget the clothes hanger. Trust me. he's too small to do any damage..

Good luck with 'em, keep us posted.

[drgngrl116]

Oh, really? I assumed it would feel like a hamster bite, (Which I used to have and got bit a few times, lol) Thanks! I'll try and pick them up later today, and get myself over the nervousness, so I can enjoy their company again! (Everyone kept telling me to let them go but I said, NO! I can't do that, even if I wanted to, they're tame and I would be too afraid of them not surviving in the wild! -not that I wanted to (: )

Thanks so much for the site measuring site! I'll definitely do that as soon as I can get a proper picture Thanks too, for the food advice. I was worried that they're not getting enough nutrients with only eating one type of food.

I'll post again tomorrow with my progress (:

[snakehill]

It really doesn't hurt at all! Like Redsided said-very important not to jerk away!

[drgngrl116]

Thanks for the advice!

Oh, here's a picture of my snakes from a few months ago, when I wasn't to scared to hold them! :P haha hopefully soon I'll have some more (So you can see what size they are )

[RedSidedSPR]

Do you know what kind they are? They look like easterns, but I see some red...

[guidofatherof5]

Big beautiful snakes.

[RedSidedSPR]

Oh yeah, I can see it now. That looks right. Cool, I love those! I have one too

[drgngrl116]

Well, I live in Michigan and the mama snake was from belle Ilse. One of them is more of a green color and a couple little black marks under the eyes and the other is more brown and I don't think he has the black marks. Here's another picture, the part that looks red on one of their bellies is just from the camera (Crappy camera -.-) I believe that they are eastern snakes, but I'm not sure -.-" I'll take some better close up pictures with a better camera when I pick them up in a little while (Or try to :P)


EDIT: (haha it took me so long to post there were two more posts before I finished! :P) haha Thanks!

You do? That's cool. Is yours tame or a grump?

[RedSidedSPR]

They look like easterns (thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis)