2011 Checkered Garter babies

[Sonya610]

Shoot, Shannon, it happened every time I wasn't quick enough to stop them. When you get them interlocking mouths and sinking each other's teeth into the inside of their mouths, it gets infected and swells up, every dang time. A real PITA to treat too.

Well your prior warning put the fear into me! I am busy stessing over 2 things during feeding time a) they will bite each other and cause some massive infection and b) one will go crazy and leap out of the enclosure (even with the cardboard barrier).

If statistically the nips are NOT a problem (and they have never actually nipped at each other that I could see, lots of tongue flicking and high drama though) maybe that is one concern that I can relax about. I will bet on good immune systems that can handle the odd bite, as the stress of separating them is probably taking more years off my lifespan than theirs!

Will continue to be careful and if a bite happens and an infection occurs will learn the lesson. I think scarying one off in order to appease my fear of food fights is probably causing more harm than good otherwise.

[Spankenstyne]

Well your prior warning put the fear into me! I am busy stessing over 2 things during feeding time a) they will bite each other and cause some massive infection and b) one will go crazy and leap out of the enclosure (even with the cardboard barrier).

If statistically the nips are NOT a problem (and they have never actually nipped at each other that I could see, lots of tongue flicking and high drama though) maybe that is one concern that I can relax about. I will bet on good immune systems that can handle the odd bite, as the stress of separating them is probably taking more years off my lifespan than theirs!

Will continue to be careful and if a bite happens and an infection occurs will learn the lesson. I think scarying one off in order to appease my fear of food fights is probably causing more harm than good otherwise.

Housing (and feeding) in groups is always a risk of some sort, my experience has been that it's very low with Checkereds and so far my Santa Cruz as well, but make no mistake there's always a risk of some sort.
It's up to the keeper to decide what risks they feel are worthwhile in the longrun and make decisions accordingly. Don't do something you're uncomfortable with because it may work for someone else with their different setups, experience level etc. Just because it works for someone else doesn't guarantee you'll get the same results for many possible reasons that might not be obvious. Only take the risks you're willing to take with your animals and you can always try out different things as you become more confident with doing so.


Haz grats on those new babies!