surprise garter snake babies?

[December]

So I begged my teacher for a snake that I could keep for our research class so she ordered a garter for me. Our first surprise was that it was an adult, not a baby as we first though, and now about a month later, we have found at least six babies in her tank! Currently my partner and I are scrambling to figure out how to take care of them and everything and I came on here to see if anyone had any tips?

Should we separate the mother and babies? Do we feed them separately? Do they need special care? Can I open the cage and look around to get a full count of the babies or should I wait?

We were completely caught off guard and we're doing our best to find some solution right now, so I'd appreciate any help anyone can give us! We haven't poked around the cage so there may be more babies, but we aren't sure if it would be okay to disturb the environment yet

[mistersprinkles]

I hope you're not planning to do any experiments on these snakes for your class... Are you housing the snakes properly? What does your setup consist of?

You can re-house the baby snakes at any time. Mother snakes are no more protective of their young than a door is of a door knob.

[Obsidian_Dragon]

Yes, you can go ahead and separate mother from babies. You don't have to separate the babies, but give them plenty of room and feed them separately, yes.

Enticing them to eat might be tricky.

Garter Snake Care Guide - Gartersnake.info is a good resource.

[millertime89]

How big is the enclosure that the mom is in? You may find a few more babies out and about if they're able to reach the lid if it doesn't seal very well...

Congrats though! If Wayne pops through I'm sure he'll be able to give you proper advice on the babies.

[mistersprinkles]

Private message Infernalis and see if he's around. He knows his garters.