Jasmine - My new eastern Garter Snake

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

So today while in the forest, I found a small eastern garter snake, I've built a habitat for her and taken her to my room. Right now, I'm using a standard lightbulb to heat the corner of the cage as I have no heat lamp yet.
First of all, I'm glad to have her
Secondly, I need to know what to feed her.
Third, I need to know some general tips on keeping a WC garter



Thanks :)



Btw, pics up by tomorrow night. Sorry I can't do earlier.

[marvelfreak]

The guy to talk to is Infernalis he raises and breeds them. He can help you.

[Will0W783]

Yes infernalis, Wayne, is the garter expert- I would shoot him a pm if I were you. They will eat mouse pinks, but they will also eat feeder fish and insects I believe. Here's a basic care sheet, but hopefully infernalis will notice this thread and post on here soon. Since he/she is wild caught you will most likely want to treat for external and internal parasites. Shoot me a pm or hit me up on AIM and I will explain the process I use to you.
Do remember that any wild-caught snake is a gamble. They are far less likely to adjust to captivity and thrive than a captive bred animal, but it can be done.

[infernalis]

No insects!!!! they have no interest in them.

Here is a good guideline for care, thanks to Scott Felzer, a well known garter expert and friend of mine. Nearly all of my colorful morphs came from him.

Scott Felzer's Garter Snakes, specializing in aberrant garters (http://www.albinogartersnake.com/care.html)

I will post pics of my setups tomorrow.

Snowflake eating cut fish....

http://www.thamfriends.com/MPFG/images/hpim3288.jpg

masubius eats a pink....

http://www.thamfriends.com/MPFG/images/hpim3187.jpg

Diana (She's a BIG girl) eating a real mouse...

http://www.danceswithreptiles.com/PG1/images/di2mouse.jpg

[shaunyboy]

love the colour of masubius,i always meant to ask what some of the food items were in your posts.i tried my best to id them but now i know its fish.i'd thought it maybe was chicken at one point.ram es-hestos,anything remotely garter related then infernalis is the man to ask.he's starting to get me more and more hooked on them every time he puts more pic's up.the colours of the little guys he has are truely stunning !
cheers shaun

[infernalis]

Here is my blue guy "Sky" chowing down on some cut up tilapia. Commonly sold at Wal Mart for $4 a pound.

That's a lot of snake food for just a few dollars.

http://www.danceswithreptiles.com/cool/sky.jpg

He also is rather fond of F/T pinkie mice...

http://www.danceswithreptiles.com/Thamnophis_files/skyeatspink.jpg

An albino ponding cut fish....

http://www.reptard.info/sr/bino.jpg

Masubius is now on fuzzy hopper mice. I'll get some pics soon.

[marvelfreak]

Just got the May 2010 Reptiles magazine and there's a feature article on the eastern garter.

[shaunyboy]

just cant say it enough,the colours of your little guys are just plain awesome infernalis...!!

[infernalis]

Just got the May 2010 Reptiles magazine and there's a feature article on the eastern garter.

By Tim Spuckler, I have some of his morphs.

I have yet to pick up the magazine, but since I know Tim, I got a heads up early about it.

Cool stuff.

just cant say it enough,the colours of your little guys are just plain awesome infernalis...!!

Thanks once again!

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

Here's one pic I got yesterday, I'll get the rest of them up with the setup on here tonight.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff273/dagorhirpics/garter.jpg

[Will0W783]

Aww, she's pretty. So, you wanted a massive Burm and instead your first snake is one of the smallest species...gotta love irony!:laugh:

[infernalis]

when you get worms, just make sure you avoid red wigglers, they can make your snake sick.

They are the blood red worms found in compost.

http://www.songbirdgarden.com/store/ProdImages/RedWiggler.jpg

That's why I said night crawlers......

Also avoid goldfish, rosie reds and comets, they contain thiamaise, known to give long term health issues.

Even though the data indicates that garters consume amphibians, avoid them as well.

Frogs, toads and salamanders usually have parasites.

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

:\ She's not eating... I gave her some earthworms today from the backyard. Also tried some frozen flounder (only frozen fish we had at home). Nothing has worked yet. I havent yet gotten out to buy anything for her.

Hopefully she'll eat something soon.

I'm trying to get pictures up right now... trying to find the correct cord for my camera.

Anyway, she is amazingly tempered, never even tried to bite me. I'm so happy! She was exploring all over the place today, climbing all over my guitar, sniffing out my dirty clothes and fedora, everything!

Any suggestions on how I can get her to eat?

Kim, Yeah, it is ironic, but I think the desire to have some sort of snake overcame my desire to have a burm first. :D

[infernalis]

Give her time to settle in.

Since you say you found her swimming in a stream, I'm guessing she was fishing.

Being a wild caught, you may have to put live fish in the water bowl for a while.

[Will0W783]

I'd also leave her be for a few days to a week to get settled and try not to handle her too much during this time- this is recommended even for captive bred animals. Generally don't expect a new snake to eat its first week with you. That's awesome that she is so calm- has she musked you at all? I know the garters I used to catch in my backyard always musked me...it smells like cat pee..ick. I wish you the best of luck with her, and who knows, you may find you like the wee ones better in the end!

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

Yeah, she has musked me, BUT, it was only about a minute after I caught her. SInce then, no musk, just pee.
I'll try and find some fish, tomorrow I get a work break, so I can probably go buy her some fish and stuff. Also a bigger water bowl.


Anyway, here's pics;

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

moar!! Enjoy!


EDIT: I love how she just sat on my guitar while I played. She's so nice! By the way, decided to change her name to Jasmine. :)

[infernalis]

Looks like you found one of the calmer ones.

Nice.

[SlimeyLimey805]

infernalis: WOW i have NEVER seen a snake that is so.. so BLUE! where did you get them? and what are they called (i gathered eastern garter but i mean if they're a specific morph or w/e)
Rham: i would recommend a shallow (as in a couple inches or less) dish of water with a live guppy in it (judging by your pic a rather large female? id say a female anyway but thats just me) i would try and make the dish shallow enough so the movement of the fish would disturb the surface of the water as to get the snakes attention. this worked just about every time with my garter snake (for the short time i had her) but she seemed to be very gun shy and liked me to leave the room before she performed her business. so i hope that this is helpful and your snake eats soon!

[infernalis]

That blue one is called a Puget Sound garter snake, that is no morph, the occur naturally in the state of Washington.

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

Can I feed my garter mealworms?

[infernalis]

Nope not interested. They won't eat them.

Mealworms are insects, even though they say mealworms.

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

Alright. Thanks then. I suppose I'll throw out the few that I bought. I will have to get someone to take me to the petsmart tomorrow to pick up some minnows and a new water dish. Right now I have a ceramic pot plate. The kind that you put the ceramic pots on. I've not seen her use it yet, dunno why. Perhaps she is lonely/not interested/scared?
Idont see why she'd be scared of it, I've been handling her and she's done extremely well with me, she'll just sit on my lap or my hands and sniff around. Her favorite perch is the head of my guitar, she sits on it, looking around at my room and sniffing the air. So cool. :)

[infernalis]

A clear glass dish works best, the snake can see the movement and it will "trigger" feeding (hopefully)

Like I said, sometimes wild caught need a little time to settle in.

Garter snakes are resilient, and will soon grow accustomed to your presence.

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

Alright. Well, I'll see what I can do about getting her settled in. She doesn't seem to
mind me. Moves around in her cage in my presence sometimes even (which I thought was good because when she first got here, she wouldn't dare to breathe if I was around).

Clear bowl should be easy to find somewhere. How long do you think she can go without food? I don't want to come home from school one day and find her starved to death. :(

[infernalis]

If she has not eaten for two to three weeks straight, then I would worry.

A great place to find a water bowl on the cheap is at the Salvation Army thrift stores.

I get water bowls and food bowls for 25 cents each there.

[SlimeyLimey805]

naturally?! damn. i woulda never guessed. are they much more costly than your run of the mill garter? and do they all have such amazing coloring?

[emseeKAY]

i would like to second that the puget sound garter? (is that right) looks absolutely amazing and i have now made that my mission in the next year or so to get one ;) hehehe, when my girlfriend asks why i bought "ANOTHER STUPID SNAKE" i'll tell her Wayne made me do it :D haha i think she just gets mad that i talk about snakes so much hehehe :) she really doesnt mind them :)

[infernalis]

I paid a jerk (didn't know it at the time) $100 to send me a snake he caught in his back yard.

I am getting a CB female to breed with him, a friend has a litter on the way, so hopefully soon I will have some for sale.

She also suggested a breeding loan, and I would get 1/2 the litter from that.

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

Been a week now. I've had worms, mealworms, and Rosie sides (think that's what they're called) in there with her. She seems to have no interest in them.
She's doing fine otherwise, she loves being handled and likes to sleep in the elbow of my shirt, all this I find odd. If she wasn't going to eat because she was uncomfortable around me, why not eat while I am gone, and why is she so nice around me?

Also, on a side note, I can hear her breathe sometimes. It sounds like a little pop when she breathes in. Just every once in a while. Not too often, I think only when she's excited. Kim thinks maybe a respiratory infaction. I'm going to give her regular warm baths and a hotter lamp.
Also, has anyone ever had a garter flatten their necks? When Jas doesn't wanna be held she runs away and flattens her neck like a cobra if I pick her up.

[citysnakes]

why not let her go and keep a captive bred animal instead?

[infernalis]

The flattening out is the snakes way of trying to scare a would be predator.

In all honesty when I said let the snake settle in, I meant that you should leave her alone for like a week, no handling, zero touching.

I know how difficult that may sound, I can tell by your posts that you are completely enthralled by your new friend.

Not that I want to discourage you or anything, but the pictures you posted of the snake perched on your guitar are constantly on my mind, It's easy to mistake a terrified animal with "calm"

Try and think of it from the snakes perspective, you just came out of a long winter hibernation and some giant creature just scoops you up from your natural habitat and bring you into this big giant place unlike anything you have ever seen, and then sits you on top of this giant thing that vibrates... (She has no clue what is going on, and therefore is frightened for her very life).....

Would you feel like eating?? probably not.

Another thing to take into very serious consideration is that if your snake is in fact a she, then she very well could be gravid (pregnant) and that concerns me as well.

I have been in this forum thing now for quite a few years, and have read many stories posted by nice people just like yourself who picked up a wild female snake only to wind up with a huge litter of babies, and in several of those cases the babies wound up dead for one reason or another.

You need to do some serious soul searching and decide if what you are doing is really in her best interest, I will gladly guide you along in whatever decision you make, just try and think of your little friend and what you really want for her. ;)

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

At Kim's suggestion, I purchased a heat lamp for her and hope to see if that will get her warmer. Her cage temp was much too low. She's already basking so that's a good sign. Also. I found one of the fish outside the water bowl. About two inches away. She may have tried to eat it. Maybe it jumped. But none other have so far. I don't know. Just crossing my fingers

[Will0W783]

As infernalis said, You need to do some serious soul searching and decide if what you are doing is really in her best interest, I will gladly guide you along in whatever decision you make, just try and think of your little friend and what you really want for her.

I really could not agree more. I do not catch any wild animals, and I generally do not deal with fresh imports either. It's just too hard on the animal. It's a HUGE adjustment and puts their little bodies through a lot of extra stress. And any WC animal has to be treated for external AND internal parasites. Otherwise the parasite load will most likely overcome them in captivity.

[infernalis]

I also don't want to come across as a hypocrite either, some of my nicest pet garters were caught in my back yard. ;)

With a little patience and understanding, we can get this snake going for you....

Just think carefully about all the variables involved.