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Garter snake

  • Thread starter Tim
  • Start date
My kids and I caught a Garter snake by my beehives, and I let them bring it home for a while. I didn't know they were viviporous, and she gave birth to several babies of which this is one. Then we turned it back loose right where we found it.

ariannagartersnake.jpg
 
oh wow, are you sure that's a regular garter snake? look at the red bands! it could be the very, very rare and endangered san fransisco garter snake!
 
Well, that would be an eye opener and no mistake!! My experience with Garter snakes is that the variability is tremendous in every brood, but if you think it's endangered, send the photo off, and we'll give it to a zoo or whatever.

I like them because I think they're pretty, and they eat mice, which are hard on my bees in the winter.

Regards
Tim
 
There are plenty of garters with red sides. Some are like you said Spec, SF garters, but there are some like the red sided garters and even some ribbon snakes have red banding/coloration. SF have more of a bluish color to it, with a flaky red.
 
they eat mice? Wow Im impressed I didnt think they got big enough for that.
 
What state are you in, can you give me a more detailed picture? At the very least, I'll be able to tell you if it is a ribbon or a garter.

...Yes, garter snakes will eat mice if trained too, but in the wild they usually prefer large insects, worms and amphibians.
 
Well, Tim, you're from the central coast, CA, so i guess it would have to be ethier a Santa cruz garter or a red sided (could be a few more).
Yea, garters do eat mice, if they the prey is the right side. Some will eat pinkies/fuzzies without hesitation, but a few migth have to be 'tricked' into eating those. in captive conditions, one might train garters to eat moistened aquatic turtle food (as stated in a past "Vivarium" issue-'Red Flamed Garters&#39
wink.gif
. I would stick to an alternating diet of live fish and small feeder mice.
 
Doesn't the West Coast have the red-spotted garter snake? We have red-sided in Nebraska, and that is not the same(that looks prettier IMO), and that certainly is not a SF garter snakes.

Regards,

Joe
 
How cute
smile.gif
. The only thing about wild snakes when you pick them up they release a musky smell
tounge.gif
. It is nasty smelling.
tounge.gif

I would have imagine the mouse would have to be really small for a garter snake to eat one. I always feed my garter snake goldfish.

Travis
 
  • #10
Well, the mother was very big and fat, and hanging around my beehives. Mice can sneak in and steal food from the bees during the winter, and there are always tons of them around the hives.
I let my son take it home for a few weeks, and it had about 20 babies. All but 9 were still born, the others were fed with worm the kids dig up in the garden. Some were released by the house, some were given away, but they kept this one, which like earthworms the best, and also feeder guppies.
 
  • #11
Even though I have milksnakes, corns and kings, I have always wanted to try and collect as many different garter snakes as I could, in an economical way. I don't suppose anyone would be interested in swapping specimens of their local species for our plains and red-sided garters?
Garters in the wild eat more worms than mice. Mice are kind of a big food item and hard to overcome, because garters do not have poison or the ability to constrict. If they happen upon a nest of babies, then they will gorge themselves.
The benefit of feeding your pet garter pinky mice (or whatever size they can handle), is that mice are a complete food item: you do not need to sprinkle supplement vitamins on them. A steady diet of just worms can lead to calcium and other supplement defieciency that they would not get just being in the wild.
Cool snake, Tim, no doubt about it. And yes, lol, their best line of defense is musk, instead of biting.

regards,

Joe
 
  • #12
Joe, sorry, I meant red-spotted the whole time (not much of a garter expert, im a milk/king guy). You are absolutely correct with mice as being a "whole" diet. Garters do perfer worms, fish, frogs, etc., but mice (like pinkies and fuzzies), are often eaten in captivity. I have read that some garters have an agent in thier saliva that can subdue some fish, etc. prey (much like that of a hog-nose snake, but hoggies admit a venom that is harmless to people (unless you are allergic) through a pair of rear-fangs).

Also, Joe, you are into milks/kings (anyother colubrids?). I am thinking of breeding Applegate Pyro's in the future. What snakes do you have now?

-Zach
 
  • #13
A pair of Arizona Mnt. Kings
male Andean milk
a Pueblan milk
Mexican black king
neo pair of grey banded kings
Okatee corns

I think that is all.
 
  • #14
Wow, impressive tricolors. Where did the pyros originate from? Same for the alternas.
 
  • #15
Oh man. The alternas were from Bruce Lee Bednar(yes, the man raises snakes as well as cp), and the pyros were from....Mike Feltzer, maybe?

joe
 
  • #16
Cool. my het applegate pyro was from Jeff Teel
 
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