Meet the gang!

[kibakiba]

Haha, I've seen snakey do that when I fed him a pinky. He went up the tank and almost out of it. Maybe he was trying to trick me into letting him out of there :P She hasnt gotten food in about 4 days... She's been staring at my fingers hungrily lately

[ConcinusMan]

That's a good thing. That's how you earn their trust and they come to think of you as their provider. That's how a "tame" garter made. That's how it starts.

[kibakiba]

Indeed. She's very tame now, its just easy to tell when shes hungry, she sees me near the tank and rushes out to see if I brought pinkies... There's a little glass that I use when I thaw the pinks, she goes over to it and stares at it. Haha, she's such a pig

[kibakiba]

Mama's acting strange today. She's very skittish for one, she never really flinches or gets spooked when I take the top off, but today she got really scared when I opened it to change their water. When I picked her up around an hour ago she was breathing really fast and every third or fourth breath she took a big breath, enough to puff herself up a little bit. She also occasionally looked like she ate something, like pushing it down. I put her back in the tank because I thought maybe I had stressed her out but she appears to be doing the breathing thing still. Snakey's been trying to mate with her a lot also... He chased her around the tank for an hour. I took him out about 20 minutes ago and Mama came out to rest on top of the hide. When I put Snakey back she just sat there and let him slither on top of her. He doesn't seem so into her now. Other than the breathing and skittishness she's acting pretty normal, not as curious as she normally is, though. She just sat around on my hand when I held her. I got some pictures of the little bit of friskiness and runt when he was eating earlier today. He's more trusting of me now, he actually ate from the tweezers today.


Ignore the camera flash, sweetheart...



Noooo... Leave me alone darn it!


Smile big for the camera!

[ConcinusMan]

Honestly, what you described sounds like she's about to have babies.

Don't be one bit surprised if you find a litter any day now.

[kibakiba]

She seems too small to have babies! Should I put her or Snakey in a different enclosure? I don;t have anything suitable to really put them in :/ Snakey could go in Runts tank, he seems to enjoy the company haha.

It's really hard to believe that Mama would be pregnant, but would be fitting of her name . But really, she hasn't really gained any weight at all, at least she doesn't look bigger. All mothers probably wish they didn't get bigger when they were pregnant

[ConcinusMan]

Well, it could also be that the female is just ready to breed. Ordinoides can breed at different times of the year. In the wild some breed in very early spring, others in fall. Basically they can breed any time of year and sometimes to multiple males. The sperm is held until the female is ready to ovulate, then she becomes gravid. That's one of the reasons you can't count on babies a certain number of days after breeding. I have had small females that didn't look gravid but dropped a couple of babies anyway, say 2 or 3.

[kibakiba]

That makes sense. So, should I just leave both of them in there for now?

[ConcinusMan]

I see no reason to separate them. If babies happen to appear, separate those from the big ones.

[kibakiba]

Will do
They've been sleeping all day... Mama is coiled up on top of poor little Snakey... She uses him like a pillow all the time, haha poor guy.