Garter Snakes

[BWSmith]

There are tons of Dekays, but we have been in a state of constan flood conditions, and i can't find any"Worm Eaters" right now. I think I flipped enough rocks to fill a stadium and all I found was a couple leaches

[Vanan]

The Dekay's DO feed on leeches though, right?

[crimsonking]

BW. I fed corals ringnecks all the time! I had one or 2 that preferred them over all other prey. Funny thing though, I have never had a scarlet king take one! Once had a ringneck nearly kill my Cal. king when he clamped down on her (where tongue is located) and would not let go. Don't know about all the "toxic" jazz of the ringnecks. It seems some snakes are able to handle it and some are not. Better safe than sorry, but I have no real proof (ie. a snake death from eating a ring neck) although others may have. Trying out the exotic Brahminy blind snake as a food source for stubborn sk babies, but the blind snake I found today is nearly as big as the neonate scarlet kings!
:Mark

[Vanan]

lol! That's crazy that a brahminy blind snake would be bigger than them scarlets!

[BWSmith]

One of my corals I had for almost a year feeding it dekayi and baby corns. I tried feeding him a ringneck and the next morning, he had regurged and died. The same thing happened to Delton Hilliard who had his coral for a little over a decade.

BTW, the Garter and Coral are friends now I think. They were hanging out together on top of the log.

[Chris Steele]

So you guys rescue snakes? I want to do this too. I dont know how to get started and how to let everybody in the county know to call me instead of kill snakes around their houses. It would be fun to do, plus It will be saving countless snakes. Around here, sadly anything that isn't a black snake is a copper head....atleast to the people here it is....Most of the people here even kill the snakes if they know its not poisonous. Someone up the road just killed 3 snakes a few days ago and she knows I am into snakes. I really hate it when people do that, Tell me how you guys get people to call you to "get rid of" (rescue) snakes.

[Vanan]

Word of mouth. If you show people that you're a responsible and caring herper, they'll remember you and when they encounter a snake they'll probably think of calling you.

Word of caution when doing rescues. Be over prepared! Expect the worst. Have a good herp vet on hand and lots of money. The snakes you get are probably gonna be a lil "messed up" after going through a lawn mower, weedcutter etc. And never NEVER take on more than you can handle. Start a network if possible. So that if you alone can't handle a certain situation (or a high volume of snakes) you have another herper who can lighten your load.

Good luck. It's a noble thought you have, but make sure you do it right.

[Zoe]

It would be fun to do

Great idea, Chris! But you shouldn't see this as a rosy glowing way of saving all these snakes. While you are helping them, you will also them suffer, and sometimes die, and sometimes you will be stuck with them forever.

It's a great, I mean not being an official rescue, but taking on what you can when people let you know about the snake. Just making sure you aren't getting into something you aren't seeing the negative side of

Zoe

[BWSmith]

Nature Centers refer most to me. But doing rescues, as Zoe said, have extra freezer space for the unlucky ones.