Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[darkdan99]

i was wondering what people honestly thought of my recent project, which until now i hadn't mentioned.



the reason for not mentioning, is that it was being tested, while it was happening, and it if went tits up, i didn't want to look stupid lol.



what i have done, is put a lot of time, effort and thought into creating a natural habitat for my garter snakes.



i chose the garters as a starting point, because they are active, and only appreciate occasional handling, they don't eat mice, and they like a *moist* setup.



so i started with research into the natural environment of the garter snake.



this is southern California, and rather than bore you with the specifics, here is a graph

image attached
---taken from College of Natural Resources - University of Idaho.



this is a 30year average, so all of the "year on year" variations would be averaged out to give a more normal result.


natural food: fish, frogs/toad/tadpoles, small mammals, and occasional eggs, or carrion.



natural areas: grasslands by a water source, or Fields/plains.



basically this is what i want to reproduce.



i will stick to seasonal variations as much as possible, with regards to temps and rainfall, but since we are in Britain, it will rain more (too keep the grass alive) and the temps will change monthly, so i don't have to fiddle with the stat every day!



for the preparation time, i kept them in a faunarium style tank, with a dog bowl, and bark substrate, i notices a change in behavour, that i am putting down to the stress of the move, and the smaller water area, i would estimate that the spend approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of their time partially, or fully submerged.



i have posted pics in previous posts of my original setups, but since i have made some big modifications, and below, is what i now have.



firstly and foremost, i have kept the layout the same. at the rear, is a large roller tray, with a pool pf water, and a area of moss on the "roll" bit.



in front of this, i have replaced the bark, with soil/sand/vermiculite/perlite mix, at 5/1/1/1. this is planted with a meadow seed containing 20% meadow flowers, and 80%grasses.



This took a week to sprout, and another to look good. it is now starting to look very nice.



i have also planted the area with a ficus, dracinia spp, and a big leaved light green one!



i did originally have a few hides, but due to non use, i have since removed them.



for the grass area, i have lined the floor with rubble sacks, secured on the underside with silicone sealant, and on the top side with gaffer tape, but i have stapled the edges also, to prevent accidents. it is secured very tightly.



to water the grass, i keep it damp by a daily pouring of a small amount of water, and a weekly rain, with a watering can.



for a more natural airflow, i have replaced the wooden top with a fine mesh screen.



originally, i had some leaf litter, but day 3 into the preparations, a fungi appeared so out with that!



the next issue was feeding. i want to find away to feed them safely, naturally, and healthily.



my idea was to have live foods loose in the Viv. so, i decided to do some tests, under close supervision. i put both garters into a crix tub, with one worm. the first bit it, and began eating it, and the second (the larger female) coiled into the other end ignoring her mate. i introduced a second worm, and the female took it, and was ignored by the male, after he had finished his.



i repeated this test, over 3 feeds (12 days) and found that when the snake gets the worm, the other snake leaves him/her alone.



great, it is safe to offer a worm in a confined environment, then it is safer to do it in the larger environment, of the vivarium.



for a natural feeding schedual, there will be no feeding schedual.



i have left the garters in the Viv, along with some earthworms, (bought not collected).



in the near future, i will offer some feeder fish, and possibly some tadpoles collected from the pond



16 days after beginning the preparations, i decided it was time for the garters to move in.



straight away, they dug tunnels, and i didn't see them hardly at all in the first 4 days. on day 5, when watering, the smaller of the pair (male) came up. i genitally grasped him, and he didn't struggle. i was quite surprised, because all previous attempts at handling have ended in a musked Dan, and a wriggly snake.



over the following few weeks, i got more visits, until now, when i slide the glass, 2 heads pop up. sometimes they will come out and say hi, other times they will remain as heads.



this is good, because they decide when they want to be handled, and because of this, there temperament is 1000 times better, now they will sit in my hand, or slowly slither through my fingers.



i have only been musked once, since the new setup, and this was when i got her back out (after she went in) to look at a "suspicious" mark, that turned out to be a spec of soil on her belly scale.



now the setup is as natural, as i believe it can be.



they tunnel to hide, bask on the top, hide in the grass, swim, climb, etc.



they eat when they Want to, and they are both eating about 4/6 days apart, and The old schedual was 5 days (have they kept their routine, or just coincidence?)



time scale



started prepping the new style Viv

26/1/07



garters moved in

11/2/07



today's date

21/3/07, and ALL IS WELL!



i will cross post this in other forums, because some people don't look at this forum, but do use the others, so if you see it twice, sorry!



so what do you think, all opinions welcome!



thanks for taking the time to read this,

regards

Dan



(i will follow up with pictures when Fuji send my bl00dy cam back)

(please excuse any spelling mistakes)

[Drymarchon32]

Respect to your dedication dude, they are fantastic snakes and deserve that level of care. I've caught garters from east to west coast and habitat varied hugely even within a very limited range. How big is your viv? You failed to mention it or I can't read
I have to say that I prefer as naturalistic setups as humanly possible, so your project gets a 9.5 out of 10 from me. You lose half a point for the lack of a slow moving river or lake.
There was one spelling mistake that I thought brilliant

[darkdan99]

that was the spell checker, i promise

and as for the size, it is 18x2x18 (ldh) but atm they are only 35cm long, and soon will be moved into an equally setup 3x2x2, i think tat they will appreciate the extra room, because of their activity levels, and i may be getting some albino's fairly soon.

they have a large water area, and i was looking into getting a pump in there but due to the vibrations, i thought better of it. (thanks Dan(reticulatus))

i think, when i transfer them over, i will put a small stream ending in a larger water area for them. maybe a cat litter tray and some guttering will do the trick

thanks for the reply
regards
Dan

[garysumpter]

Where are the pics?
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[Peter Parrot]

Sounds like a great project. Garters are a species which I would imagine would lend themselves well to a naturalistic set up if roomy enough. Keep us up to date with your progress.
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[darkdan99]

sorry.

totally forgot about posting the pics

here they are:






i have changed the water, because after the initial "burst" they were not using it enough to justify half of their space, so as you can see, it is now a water tray, still over sized, that is being used.
also, the grass was proving to keep looking nice, at the higher temps, so i have done away with it, for the foreseeable future!

regards
Dan

[thomas mcpherson]

nice dont see much set ups like that. i would imagine your garter would love that

[Drymarchon32]

Looking good dude, like it.

Al
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Complacency killed the keeper

[darkdan99]

the garters seem to be happy, and that is the most important thing.

thanks for the nice comments. i need to get some more grass growing really.

but it isn't so much about the look of it, more the principle of the project.

but if it looks nice, it makes me happy.