garter compatability

[PsychedelicTarantulas]

Garters will eat newborn ribbons. I made this mistake a few years ago when I housed a gravid proximus with some easterns. Lost a number of newborns before I was able to remove them.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Hey patrick welcome to the forums! Could the baby ribbons have had some scent on them from food or was this fresh out of the sac? Just trying to figure out cause eastern garters are not usually cannbalistic. I wonder if it had somethng to do with the amniotic fluid?

garters will eat newborn ribbons. I made this mistake a few years ago when i housed a gravid proximus with some easterns. Lost a number of newborns before i was able to remove them.

[PsychedelicTarantulas]

Hey patrick welcome to the forums! Could the baby ribbons have had some scent on them from food or was this fresh out of the sac? Just trying to figure out cause eastern garters are not usually cannbalistic. I wonder if it had somethng to do with the amniotic fluid?

Hey Shawn! This was fresh out of the sac and no food was present. I was living in an area of Arkansas where Eastern Garters and Western Ribbons were both native. In fact all specimens were caught in my yard. The habitat in the area was superb! I miss that house. It had a nice pond in the yard, woods that were next to the property, and a nice stream. I was teaching High School Science classes at the time so I caught several of both species in my yard to bring in and share with my students. Adults were all housed together and I never had a single problem with them or a single sign of aggression towards one another.

One day I realized an adult female proximus was in the middle of giving birth. Then I noticed the eastern garters eating the babies. I had to quickly remove the Easterns to let the Proximus finish birthing. After this I did not house them together any longer. Oh and let me note that it was not a single Eastern eating them. Multiple Easterns started attacking the babies.

They were indeed covered in Amniotic fluid still and the Easterns were obviously picking up some kind of scent. I assume this could very well be the cause....