A guy I get rodents from has a ribbon snake that someone dropped off and he's offering it to me since he's full up. I don't know if it was an abandonded pet or a fresh wild caught from someone's yard.



I haven't kept thamnophis since I was a kid, and those were all wandering garters, so I thought I'd run the setup I was wondering about using by ya'll and ask a few questions.

20 gallon long, warm end of 85ish, probably using a low watt redlight. Cypress mulch for the substrate, cork for hides, stuff to climb on.

I dont' know about the water bowl size and diet though; I've heard confilicting things. The thamnophis I kept as a kid *loved* swimming so I gave them huge waterbowls (about 1/3 of thier cage was a water bowl--I used small kitty litter pans). Do ribbons swim, or are they less fond of water than garters?

I've also heard conflicting things about diet; some sources say they love worms, others that they won't touch 'em. My garters used to eat a mix of worms, minnows and small mice; would this work for ribbons? Or are they strictly fish and frogs?

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