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Thinking Aobut Another Snake!

centauri_aiuken

centauri_aiuken

New member
Hello! :D

You all said it would happen and it's true! I caught the reptile bug! I had a really hard time with snakes at first, learning all of the right ways to do things in the hardest way possible. But I've now had my corn, Hestia, for seven months and she is happy, healthy, and generally eating very well.

I'm now thinking about going back to my first snake, the garter, since I have an empty 10-gal that I am itching to fill. Does anyone have any advice for organizational tricks I might need for raising two snakes at once (organizing feeding schedules, etc)? I know that a lot of people here have more than one snake, so I thought this would be a good place to ask!

Thanks so much!
~Sami
 
Two snakes is fairly easy to do. (we've over 70 now and that is almost a nightmare...)

Things to consider: Size/age of the snakes - are they fairly close? If they are, and are both eating similar sized meals at equal intervals, you can keep them on the same feeding schedule and that will make it easier to remember who needs to be fed.

Record keeping for multiple snakes helps to keep track of any issues that arise. (IE: Refused meals, sheds, health problems, etc...)

Cleaning cages/checking water - for us, because we use larger water dishes and have so many critters, we usually do cage cleans while the snake is chowing down supper and scrub the water dishes. (We do make sure everyone has water at all times, but don't do full cleans unless the dish has aspen, feces, or other mess) Doing the cleanings like this cuts down on the amount of time it takes. I feed, and my oldest does the spot/full cleans while the hubby makes himself scarce so as not to be in the way.

Oh yeah, involving the kids - or friends/family - helps out a lot too. The more hands the faster the work goes by.

But as I said, the care of two (or even of just five) isn't all that complicated.

Hope that helps!

Jenn
 
We've just got our second corn - I didn't think the bug would hit me as I really wasn't into snakes in any way, but I wasn't allowing for the corns themselves! They're such great animals to have.

I have kept a schedule of feeds, sheds, etc since having the first one, so I've just done another one to keep track of Asali and we've decided to feed them on different days so that when one's resting after feeding we can still handle the other one.

I can't imagine that having two can be too different to having one, and I'm determined that we'll stay at two for a while now - though time will tell :bird:

Good luck with getting the snake you want

Kate
 
Thanks for the advice!

I already keep a full record on Hestia, so I figured I would do the same for my hypothetical new baby. Switching off on feeding days sounds like a good idea, too!
 
Actually two is easy. You can either get on a synchronized feeding schedule although some snakes eat more often or less often then others. I find it easier to feed on a mixed shedule with almost 50 snakes to feed right now. If I do a group each day it doesn't take nearly as long.
 
Garters can be fed on small mice, Nanci. :)

Having two snakes is pretty manageable. I have three, and with a small number I prefer to feed them all at the same time. It makes things easier IMO to wash the tubs out at once and thaw out all the mice at the same time.

Everyone needs more than one snake anyway, so you've still got one to play with when the other's shedding. :grin01:
 
Garters are mainly fish eaters though. You can get feeder fish from your local pet store. It's difficult to get garters to eat mice in most cases. Their poop is pretty stinky from their fish diet too. Although the ones I've caught in the wild didn't seem to be too bad to handle, I understand that garters can musk quite a bit.
 
I've never kept them, but I have heard that most garters will take mice though Meg. I know they're fish eaters, but mice represent a good diet for a garter and most care sheets I have read seem to recommend them.
 
I've heard they are difficult to get them to transition though. There are some very pretty garters out there though....
 
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