r/GarterSnakes

garter snake? this little guy is in my window well. it’s pretty deep, about 5 ft. I couldn’t find a long enough stick to reach all the way up for an escape route. I did put a shallow dish of water in there though. and he has shade/sun. we’re in Colorado.

should I pick him up to move him out of there? get him into a box? I don’t want to scare him or stress him out, I don't know much about snakes.

thanks for your help

Caught this guy half dead in my basement. Triangular shape of death & emaciated etc.

He's missing a significant part of his tail from some issue that happened previously. Seems to be healing ok as he's shedding & eating for us.

We've been feeding him worms which he readily takes. Cute little snake that's got a wonderful personality to deal with.

I'm a snake owner of blood python, ball python, rat snake, & a Water Cobra so I'm in the snake-keeping game for 2 decades + at this point.

I'm looking to keep this guy as I have my doubts he'll be ok in the wild with his tail missing, but I want to identity what species he's is.

I'm guessing he's a Dekay’s brownsnake or Garter snake? Can anybody definitively say what he is?

Any help & suggestions with keeping?

Just returned home from a convention today, with two Goldens and three Florida Blues. We run bioactives for all of our hognoses, and thankfully for all of our research the care seems similar enough. Tonight they’re getting Tilapia for their first meal, and hopefully no one gets a taste for their sibling!

At the moment, we’ve named them the Squiggles, and we love them immensely.

I recently bought a trio of captive bred checkered garters and this guy was sold as a checkered but I noticed he was a lot more blue and had the resemblance of a Florida blue. I’m just wondering if they accidentally sold me the wrong kind of garter or if he’s just a weird variant. Thanks!

Hello! I'll try to keep this brief. I got my new garter snake today, she's a tiny little yearling melanistic plains baby, super cute. I have her in a fully set up and cycled bioactive 36x18x18 with plenty to climb on, hide in, and explore. I have the basking spot at a daytime temp of 86° and the cool side stays around 75°, day and night cycle, uvb, the whole deal.

When I first put her in her enclosure she hid in one of her ferns to rest on the cool side and then quickly found the cork basking spot on the warm side & made a home underneath it. She keeps coming out to glass surf all around the perimeter of her enclosure but especially on the warm side under her uvb light by the bigger bromeliad. It looks like she's trying to climb or explore but she won't pay any attention to what's actually in her enclosure, she just keeps coming up to the front and glass surfing instead. Is this normal??? Is there anything I can do to help her? It is her first day with me and her first day in the enclosure but I'm worried that this might not be normal behavior. For reference she's like maybe 16 inches long so she's got a ton of room to explore, is it maybe overwhelmingly big?? Should I block off the sides of the terrarium as well?? Crank up her heat a bit??? Or just chill out and let her get acclimated? I'm worried about her sticking to the perimeters near her warm side and not finding her water bowl, I sprayed the enclosure a bit earlier and she came out to drink water off a leaf so she's definitely thirsty.

Also how long should I wait to feed her? She was last fed on the 9th. She seems hungry but I'm scared of her being stressed and regurgitating :(

Pics included of her setup and of her because she is adorable, TYIA!

I posted before about my parents new house being a beautiful rocky home to some cute garter snakes. She’s super afraid of snakes but I’ve been encouraging her to let them hang out by saying they are keeping the rodent population in check.

Mom is convinced every snake is a pregnant female that’s going to have 100 baby snakes under their deck 😅 So I’m posting this in hopes this wonderful group can help me assure her it’s not pregnant lol The video is from this evening.

Hi all, I'm still very new to snake ownership so I'm looking for some advice. I got my girl Diana (hybrid red-sided garter and California red-sided garter, one year old) on June 21. I did a ton of research before getting her to make sure she had everything she needed. She's in a 48"×18"×18" terrarium with about 3" of substrate, live plants, a swimming pool, a cool/humid and hot/drier side of the tank, the temp is kept between 70-90° across both sides of the tank, and the humidity is kept between 35-65%. She's got lots of things to climb around on and hide under.

Despite all this, I almost never see her outside her warm hides. If I walk into the room and she has her head peeking out, she'll retreat into the hide. I have a camera on her terrarium and I'll check in on her during the day and rarely see her. Her past two feedings I've gotten her to eat in front of me, but afterward she goes right back into her hide. The other day she was out and about and seemed curious, so I tried putting my hand into the terrarium and she immediately struck at me.

I'm wondering if she would be more comfortable if she had a friend. When researching before getting her, every website said that they *can* cohabitate wish other garters, but none of them suggested it would be better to have multiples. However, since joining this sub I've seen lots of advice to house multiple garters for their comfort. I would love for her to be more comfortable around me and to be handleable. I still have the contact for the breeder I got her from, and he would almost certainly be able to get me another her age.

I know that having her in a higher traffic area might help her acclimate, but I have cats and I'm afraid of them getting burned on her heat lamp. I'd also love if anyone with cats has advice for moving her into an area with cat access.

Thank you for any help, I'm just trying to be the best snake mom I possibly can ❤️