Breeding garters

[AnOle]

I have a Checkered Garter Snake and was thinking about trying my hand at breeding them. I know they are seasonal breeders and live bearers so how do you trigger breeding instincts in them??
Thanks, Brad

[JD@reptiles]

throw them in a fridge for a couple months and introduce them, its really simple...

[Invictus]

I don't know if I'd go as far as the fridge, but... a period of reduced temperature is definitely mandatory.

[AnOle]

thnx everyone and linds sry i but it in the wrong forum again! can I move it?
Brad,

[Jonathan Crowe]

Throwing them in the fridge as Jordan suggests is unnecessary and quite possibly harmful if your fridge's temp is too close to freezing. Frogs are hibernated in fridges, not snakes.

Some people hibernate their garters (and other northern/montane colubrid species) at single-digit-Celsius temperatures, but I've successfully bred both wandering and red-sided garters after hibernating them at around 12 to 15 degree Celsius. The hibernation chamber's temperature -- a drafty closet in a drafty apartment -- fluctuated throughout the winter.

I have read reports of breeding checkered garters without hibernation, but as is the case with most North American colubrids, hibernation really does help.

Hibernate them as you would any other colubrid from the same region -- i.e., you wouldn't hibernate a checkered garter from Arizona at the same temperature as you would a Butler's garter from Michigan. If you don't know how to hibernate snakes, find out how: the instructions for hibernating most temperate climate snakes are applicable.

Note that there have been a few reports of cannibalism with checkered garters, though it's supposedly nowhere near as bad as with wandering garters. Exercise appropriate caution if you're keeping them separate and introducing them to each other for breeding, but it shouldn't be a problem -- my wandering garters didn't try to eat each other either.

Otherwise, treat 'em as you would any other North American colubrid -- they're really not that much different, except that they don't constrict. And move around a lot more. And poop lots more, too. Actually, they're quite a bit different, but that's why I like them.

Hope that this actually makes sense and actually helped -- I'm a little zonked right now: was buying a car all day today.

[eyespy]

I prefer keeping just 1 male with a female, that way you know for sure the parentage of the offspring. If heaven forbid they don't thrive, at least there are only 2 snakes instead of 3 you have to consider as possibly passing on bad genes, parasites or infection.

[AnOle]

Thanks alot!! Im gonna find away to hibernate them about how long should i leave tehm hibernating?