new checkered garter

[Smilts]

my wife got her first snake today, wich is a complete turn around. When i brought my first snae home a rescued gopher she threatened to leave me. But she's real excited about this snake shea calling it checka. I do have one question though even though it sounds strange. He she is only 6 inchs long, One of the two we picked from had a shorter tail can i look at the tails n these snake to judge sex or do i needto wait till its bigger. Thanks for any help and we'll have pics in the morning are cams dead

[Linds]

Congrats on turning your wife in to a herper I do believe garters can be reliably sexed by tail length, I believe males have longer tails than females, but I'm not 100% sure on that, so hopefully someone else will help confirm/correct that statement. Males do have thicker tailbases than females, and the thickness extends down in to the tail, whereas females tails have a sharp taper after the base.

[Jonathan Crowe]

If the reason for the shorter tail is that the tail was stubbed -- quite common in wild garters -- then sexing by that method will be difficult.

Garters from the same year are easy to sex visually after they're a year old, since females grow much larger and faster than males. After a year it's easy to tell.