Please help!

[Wren]

I'm absolutely desperate! I have looked everywhere on the NET, in books, asked everyone I know to help identify this snake, and no one knows. Can someone here help?

I was in central Texas next to a creek. There was a lovely snake, about 12" long, smooth, slender, green head, red tongue, bright well-defined red stripe from neck to tail. There was a very thin green line down the sides of the red stripe...very thin! The rest of the snake was "snake yellow". I would be SO happy to find out what this could have been! Can someone here take a guess please?

THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!

[susan]

could it be a texas garter snake? i had one which sounds like it, i had it about 20 yrs ago so i may be mistaken

[Wren]

Susan, thank you so much for responding.

I am new at this game, so not sure. I looked up Texas Garter Snake online and it could be. I do think it is a type of garter snake, but I can't find this exact one.

Pardon my ignorance, but..... is it possible that the stripes on baby snakes are different colors than the adults? This one's stripe was bright red and very defined. Could it be that this would change as it matured into a TX Garter Snake or even a Racer??

One more question... I notice there are a lot of people asking for help identifying snakes. Do some snakes (like garters?) procude offspring that are various colors? Is there a species of snake that has a lot of variances?

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!