My Story: Storeria dekayi

[Herp Derp]

Did you notice any change in behavior, appetite or anything at all? I think you had her with other garter snakes so it probably would be a bit harder to notice.

[slipknot711]

i saw her out climbing this morning, she does that sometimes. my bf went in the tank to feed the garters their pinkies and saw two babies so he just yelled to grab the baby bin. i would have left momma in there but she slithered away and i didnt want them to get hurt so decided to throw her in the bin with a small hide to do her business. checked a cpl hrs later and now there is 8 babies. I didnt notice anything except that the days i call out of work someone has babies of some sort.

[slipknot711]

Oh I don't mind I love the pics. I'm so excited for you lol

im excited but nevous... they are so tiny, food will be my issue

[Herp Derp]

finding slugs are easy, if not in the morning, rain brings them out too, under logs and rocks, under pots, garden edges, sides of the house basically anywhere they can hide and stay moist.

[slipknot711]

thnx i was gonna go look for them tomorrow morning

[Saji]

thnx i was gonna go look for them tomorrow morning

You are a very lucky individual my dream would be to raise a Dekayi neonate.

Saji

[Herp Derp]

This just my opinion but:

Neonates - daily(small meals)
Yearlings - 3 times a week(no stuffing them)
Adults - Twice a week(good size meals)

Not to derail the other post, I brought this here. I'm not familiar with quantities.... of daily small amounts and good size meals, is there a size of snake to size/amount of food per feeding? I know other bigger snakes may eat a huge prey and not eat for months.

[guidofatherof5]

I apologize for not making my post more clear.
Garters have a high metabolisms (little sports car engines) and require fuel more often then most larger snakes.

Much of this depends on the individual size of the snake.
Give them a nice bulge in the belly, no sausage looking snakes.
I know, I know. What is a "nice bulge"?

I hope this helps but for some reason I don't feel I've done any better then my first attempt.

Someone help me out here.

[Herp Derp]

I'm not sure that helped me much more lol but thats ok, it's part of the learning curve.
Since dekays mainly eat slugs and worms which are squishy so I assume it looks like they haven't eaten.
On a similar note of digestion... how often do they defecate?

When I read that they moslty live underground what does that mean? under rocks and logs, rock piles or actually in the ground/earth... are they burrowing(for movement or to make a den?) or just crawling through wormholes(not sci-fi ones)? has anyone dug up a dekay like an earthworm (not from a den)?

[guidofatherof5]

You'll still see some stomach distension when they eat. Giving a food amount just less then a third of their body length might be a good way to describe how much.
I'm not sure "underground" is the best word. More like "undercover". Being a smaller snake they are low on the food chain and need to stay out of sight to stay alive. I've never found a dekayi out in the open, its always been under some kind of cover/hide.