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I have a wandering garter snake that eats for about 4 months of the year and refuses all food for the next 8 months. Has nothing to do with weather or shorter light period, this year she stopped eating in early June. By November I put her down in the basement for the winter because if she isn't going to eat then she might as well conserve as much as possible of her reserves as possible. There it is about 50 to 55 degrees, not quite as cold as it could be for brumation but that's as cold as I have available without putting her in the garage. Not that that would work because it freezes there quite often during winter. Anyways, come winter she spends 90 to 99% of her time in her water dish, just soaking. She doesn't just soak like this while in the basement either, she started doing it shortly before I moved her into the basement this year. It just seems to be associated with that time of the year. She doesn't do that at any other time of the year. In fact, the rest of the year she hardly spends any time in her water dish.

There seems to be no ill effects to her as she has been doing this for a few winters now. The first winters this would freak me out that she would spend days in there, I was concerned about blister disease and such issues. I would take her out so she could dry off for a while. She would just end up back in there in a few hours, so I gave up and assumed she knew what she was doing.

Anyone one else have this happening with their garter (winter full time soaking) or even eating for 1/3 of the year then nothing at all for the rest irrespective of the time of the year? Anyone have any theories on either issue? The only thing I can think of for the soaking is that maybe she finds the air humidity too low in winter.

Thanks

My male melanistic eastern was soaking quite a bit towards the end of the year, and he did it alot in late summer. It got to the point where I figured if I put some rosy reds in his swimming pool, maybe he'll eat them, and he did. I haven't seen him soaking once while he was in actual brumation though. He often soaked in there from 11 p.m. and still be in there around 6 a.m. the next morning. I assume he was doing it so he could empty up his stomach more, for the brumation period.
Michael
Michael's Place

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Helmz777@aol.com
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>>Anyone one else have this happening with their garter (winter full time soaking) or even eating for 1/3 of the year then nothing at all for the rest irrespective of the time of the year? Anyone have any theories on either issue?

You've described MY wandering garter! The last two years he's done the same thing. My record is somewhere around 330 days between meals. He also tends to soak quite a bit over the winter (this year's temps between 40 and 55 deg).

My theory is that I switched to feeding primarily F/T adult mice, and the snake subsequently doubled his weight. That's when he went off feed. After not eating all summer/fall, and brumating for a few months, he started eating again, and after that entire time he STILL weighed more than he did when he was eating primarily fish and nightcrawlers.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

I've got a big female plains who soaks a lot in general, but she's spending almost all of her time in the water dish during the cold months. About once a day she'll slither out, dry herself off under a hiding spot, and then head back in. My guess is that she prefers the colder temperature of the water to the room temperature. The fact that she's also not eating now would have me say she's in hibernation. I suspect your snake is doing the same thing. It should know what it's doing as far as regulating its own temperature goes. As long as it doesn't grow mold, it should be okay!

Michelle

I don't know about you all...But my house gets dry, dry, dry in the winter. My water bowls dry up much faster and I can hardly keep my cigars in good shape. Makes sense to me that they would want to soak just to prevent loss of moisture. Duffy

From what I have read.They soak during hibernation to slow down their metabolism even further.As far as your snakes eating patterns.I guess some snakes just have their own little quirks.My female flame for the last two years has gone off feed in august.She does'nt start eating again until I pull her out of hibernation.Which was two weeks ago.
Tom

>>From what I have read.They soak during hibernation to slow down their metabolism even further.

This doesn't make sense from a heat-transfer perspective. The temperature of a water bowl should be roughly the same as the air temperature--water always "feels" colder to use because it's more effective at conducting heat; therefore it wicks away our body heat (which we produce ourselves). A poikilothermic animal such as a snake doesn't generate its own heat (practically speaking in this context; some known instances such as incubating pythons notwithstanding), therefore it shouldn't experience said heat loss sensation. Their temperature shouldn't be appreciably different in the water vs. in the surrounding air unless they're attempting to utilize evaporative cooling, but in that case they'd be getting out of the water much more often to achieve that effect.

Maybe it's more to do with the relative humidity, as others have noted re: cooler, dry indoor air.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

I am only going by what I read.It was in the garter bible.The one with the northwestern on the front.
Tom

>>I am only going by what I read.It was in the garter bible.The one with the northwestern on the front.

Is that the title? Who's the author? My snake hasn't read that one.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

Garter Snakes: Evolution and Ecology, by D Rossman...good book, has info on all garters!! most complete book out there!