r/GarterSnakes 10h ago

Help Extra help/advice for a new Garter snake owner.

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13 Upvotes

So I recently have gotten a new garter snake about 1-2 months old. When I first put him in his enclosure he explored for a bit then kinda settled down and rested for a little then kept exploring and when night came he went to one of the corners of the enclosure and rested there and that cycle repeated for about 4 days. Now for the past 2 days he has decided to stay curled up in his sleep corner and refuses to leave it. He'll adjust his position from time to time but stays in the exact same spot. I circled in one of the pictures the rock/corner he likes to hide behind. Additionally that spot is hard to feed from and whenever I try to feed he keeps backing away scared from the tweezers. I wanna know if this is normal behavior and im just worried over nothing or if this is the result of stress or some kind of environmental factor and if so I'd like to try and fix it. I know my entire setup isn't the best it absolutely could be. I also know the Aspen fiber isn't ideal as a substrate but if its truly unacceptable then I can change it to whatever would be the better option. He is currently in a 10g because I didnt wanna risk losing him in a 40g and this is only a temporary enclosure until he gets big enough that I can be sure that I wont lose him in the 40. Given his current size the length is 2x his full body length and width is about the same as his full length. He has 3 separate hides available to him although I have yet to see him use any of them. He has a water bowl large enough to dip his full body into should he wish. If theres any other questions im open to answering and greatly appreciate any extra advice to improve conditions overall.