Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Several years ago one of my garters gave birth. I had a problem with the babies drowning. If the water was deep enough to cover their bodies, one would always drown. I eventually just sold them to a pet store. How do I give babies water without the drowning hazard? I am planning on getting babies this spring and would greatly appreciated other's experiences with neonatals.

I've never had any experience with drowning babies but perhaps if you put a folded paper towel in the water bowl so that the water wasn't too high?

I agree, putting something for your little ones to climb on like rocks or a branch would help them to get out of the water if they were stuck. Also, try using a very shallow water container, like a small plate maybe? Your babies might not be drowning because the water is too deep, but because they can't climb back out of their water dish and get exhausted in the process. Good luck!

Michelle

i use a cleaned out soda bottle lid

Instead of using a water bowl, spray the enclosure, that's the way they drink in the wild.
Michael


Michael's Place

Thank you that sounds like a great solution!

Spraying the cage isn't a great idea...they are susceptible to skin infections if the cage stays humid. They drink for streams, ponds, and puddles in the wild. Small plastic lids ike on peanut butter jars are good for water dishes for small snakes, they can get out of them easy.

There is also any easy way to make it so that the enclosure doesn't stay humid. Make air be able to get out. A screen lid would help here.
Michael

Michael's Place

Spraying the cage is NOT a good solution no matter how much ventilation you have.Babies are particularly sensetive to skin infections.The REAL solution is to set up a 5-10 gallon tank with a half inch of water with a climb out in the middle for them.....heated by an overhead lamp.This would keep them out of the water but still having unlimited access to water and potential prey.
Now for you Michael.I know how old you are,you are NO expert so please stop trying to play one here.Your website is full of mistakes and half-truths without much facts or hard data to back any of it up.You havent even KEPT half of the species you are publishing care sheets for! I wrote you this a while ago and told you to do the research and take down the website before someone made a fool of you.PLEASE take the time to understand the problems you can cause by pretending to be an expert....there are people here that are desperately looking for GOOD advice,not the kind you get at a pet store.Your advice on this issue could have easily killed off someone's pets!Jeff

...but not a good one, IMHO. Ventilating the misted enclosure will dry it out, which negates the reason for misting it in the first place. Snakes drink from streams, creeks, ponds, and other bodies of water just like most other land animals do, so having a shallow bowl of clean water with an easy means for the snake to crawl in/out is a better way to go.

(a different Michael)
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MichaelB

I only reccomended it in the first place because that's the way I give my baby Northern ringneck water, it's afraid to go in water, so I spray the glass on the tank and it drips down the side and that's how the snake drinks.
Michael

Ringnecks and ribbon/garter snakes are not the same species. If you have ever looked at water/garter/ribbon snakes from the wild, you would notice many have SKIN INFECTIONS. They are caused by being too damp. They can often be repaired with time (the snakes will eventually shed them), but in a small snake, it could just kill them or create a new host of problems.
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