Sick Garter

[joeysgreen]

I agree with you Blue. By all means I'm not trying to downplay your warnings. I don't like the idea of store bought fish, and many are salted... and of course this potential toxicity.

Snipstedy, I think your critter might have a lot of problems. Gartersnakes are not freeze tolerant, so if it got down to 20F there can be a lot of damage done. Further, if you are using a 150 watt ceramic heat emitter then you have an imbalance issue in your tank. It's going to dehydrate the enclosure, likely over heat it etc. A better description on your husbandry might better help us help you.

[snipstedy]

My tank is a 55 gal. the 150 emitter is off to the right side at the top of the tank and it does dry out the water from the dishes quickly. Last night I rearanged the tank adding a good size dish (small pool) to the left cool side and I put a big log hide over some of the pool where she has relocated to and seems to like. I have a heat bulb I can replace the emitter with. The emitter is the only thing that has seemed to warm the tank as its a very tall enclosure but I can definetly see how it dehydrates everything. I think its highly likely that she has dehydrated being that she drank constantly aas I was misting her.
Are the emitters for desert tanks ?

[d_virginiana]

To keep humidity up, you can add hides with moist sphagnum moss in them. That works better than most anything I've seen for humidity.

[joeysgreen]

Yes, multiple humid hides would be appropriate. It doesn't matter if it's a CHE or a light bulb, it's the amount of wattage that dries out the enclosure. I didn't realize your enclosure is 55 gallons, so what you have is more appropriate than if you were using a 20 or 30 gallon tank. In the end, it's the temperature range offered that matters, and then you adjust the environment to make it appropriate as per humidity. In general, a water dish isn't enough, but with semi-aquatic snakes a large one can be. Nonetheless it's ideal to always offer other options for humid retreats so that a snake doesn't have to be submerged if it doesn't want to.

Ian

[snipstedy]

Thanks,I was trying to upload a video but phone issues..she keeps going to the dish and drinking she just stuck her head all the way under water to drink big . She dies seem more energetic as to getting around at times but still stiff in places.

[d_virginiana]

I don't think dehydration is your main problem here. It can certainly make things worse, but if they've got a water dish they've been drinking from they aren't suddenly going to forget about it and stop drinking to the point they get dehydrated. Not to be a downer, but I think you may be looking at potential organ damage from her getting down to 20 degrees. Excessive drinking can be a sign of kidney issues (and garters are kind of known for having sensitive kidneys).
For now keeping her happy and hydrated and hoping for the best is about all you can do. I just don't see dehydration being the primary culprit here...

[snipstedy]

I was gone for a couple of days and put a new dish in her tank her usual dish had completely dried out & the new dish was really too tall.that's what made me think dehydrtion. Maybe not like you say..She does seem to be getting a little better.If I'm not mistaken she seems less stiff.

[d_virginiana]

Hopefully you're right.