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 #1943892


Gottee guy
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 Why did this happen?

i was feeding the garter and ribbon snake today (they were in the same cage, just the two). i put the dead minnows on a leaf and they were about to eat (but none of them had already eaten a minnow yet, keep that in mind). when my ribbon snake started searching for the minnows, my garter just slithered up to him, looked right at his face, and struck out at my ribbon, yes, struck out , purposely, and started to swallow him alive. he only latched on to the ribbon’s lower jaw, and the ribbon latched onto the garter’s upper jaw, since he was trying to be eaten alive.
i was very surprised and stunned. then i quickly took both of them out and tried to pry them off. at this point the ribbon’s bottom lip was stuck to the side lip (where the top and bottom jaw meet, the stretchy part) of the garter snake. the rest of the ribbon’s head was down the garter’s esophagus already. but his teeth were stuck in the esophagus. i tried prying them off, sticking part of a pair of pliers down the garter’s throat where the teeth of the ribbon was stuck, i dunked them in water, and even tried pouring alcohol and beer on them. nothing would work. so i had no choice but to kill one to save the other, or they may have both suffocated (there was mucus, saliva and some blood in both of their mouths). i killed the ribbon snake because it was almost dead. i broke its neck.
the garter finally got the dead ribbon snake unlatched with my help 20 minutes later. after we got it out, he then started to eat the dead ribbon snake again. i just let him eat it.
an hour later when he couldn’t get the whole ribbon snake in his stomach, he regurgitated it. then i buried the ribbon snake.
i have no idea why the garter snake purposely tried to eat the ribbon snake twice. and the ribbon didn’t have any smell of minnows on it, it didn’t even eat a minnow.
does anyone have an idea of why this happened?
01/31/09  07:05pm

 #1944208


Gottee guy
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   Message To: Gottee guy   In reference to Message Id: 1943892


 Why did this happen?

i also have pictures on my phone that my friend took when i was trying to get them off of each other.
02/01/09  08:57am

 #1944219


Basiliskboy911
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   Message To: Gottee guy   In reference to Message Id: 1944208


 Why did this happen?

Yea it was me who took the pictures i took about 50 lolz. I told Gottee Guy to not feed them together but he did anyways so well um its his falt but I said to kill the garter instead of the ribbon but he said ribbons were everywhere around his house.
02/01/09  09:31am

 #1944232


Gottee guy
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   Message To: Basiliskboy911   In reference to Message Id: 1944219


 Why did this happen?

you never told me to feed them alone!!!
and you only took 3 pictures.

and ribbons are everywhere but i have never seen a garter around here.
02/01/09  10:02am

 #1944266


Reptilefreak23
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   Message To: Gottee guy   In reference to Message Id: 1944232


 Why did this happen?

That is a strange incident, and I am truly sorry. But that can happen young with thamnophis. I take it the ribbon was smaller than the garter, and if it was feeding time, just got the instinct to eat it to. Even with a breeding colony of adult garters, I have to watch every one of their moves. The biggest ones will wrap around the water area and snap at any smaller creature who dared to approach, will try to bite the lumps of food in the other snakes belly etc... I would get locked jaw almost every time. (Most of these were because they grabbed the same piece of food.) These kinds of things seem to happen more with garters than ribbons. Its just something you really have to be careful about, especially when they are young.
02/01/09  10:43am

 #1944376


Gottee guy
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   Message To: Reptilefreak23   In reference to Message Id: 1944266


 Why did this happen?

the wierd thing is, the ribbon snake was longer than the garter, but the garter was a bit thicker. could he have digested the ribbon snake even if he had swallowed it?
02/01/09  01:17pm

 #1944503


Reptilefreak23
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   Message To: Gottee guy   In reference to Message Id: 1944376


 Why did this happen?

Doubt it, there was a reason he regurgitated.

Just curious, eastern garter, eastern ribbon?
02/01/09  04:33pm

 #1945065


Reptiles Are Awsome
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   Message To: Reptilefreak23   In reference to Message Id: 1944503


 Why did this happen?

Depending on there size and age and if they were bith male, this could have been a dominice isue. When males get to a certain age they will fight other maales that they believe are a threat or even if they believe they are suppirior.

sorry for your loss :(
02/02/09  11:16am

 #1945273


Gottee guy
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   Message To: Reptiles Are Awsome   In reference to Message Id: 1945065


 Why did this happen?

Quote:

Just curious, eastern garter, eastern ribbon?


yes

Quote:

Depending on there size and age and if they were bith male, this could have been a dominice isue. When males get to a certain age they will fight other maales that they believe are a threat or even if they believe they are suppirior.


i’ve never heard of this in garters and ribbons. are you sure this is true?
02/02/09  03:38pm

 #1945312


Reptiles Are Awsome
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   Message To: Gottee guy   In reference to Message Id: 1945273


 Why did this happen?

Yes expecially if they were both hungry. If they had not been fed in a while they may have wated it all for themselves inducing a fight.
02/02/09  04:24pm

 #1945333


Reptilefreak23
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   Message To: Reptiles Are Awsome   In reference to Message Id: 1945312


 Why did this happen?

That is very true with adults, but I have not seen it in any of my hatchlings.



02/02/09  04:44pm


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