My first snake was a Redsided Garter. This was about 1966 when they were a dime a dozen at every petshop on the corner. It was colorful, pretty, docile, easy to handle, never musked or bit, small enough to be comfortable in a 10 gal aquarium, and an eager eater of worms fish and anything that smelt like them.

I know that times have changed - Kings, Corns and Balls are all the rage, inexpensive, available in tons of morphs, and now easy to feed with today's availability of frozen rodents. I would never discourage anyone from starting off with one of these fine snakes.

However! I would like to add that Garters make truly excellent first snakes, for all of the reasons I stated above. Also, Garters are now available captive bred, in colorful morphs, at reasonable prices. With all the hooplah surrounding the cutting edge world of custom Kings, Corns and Balls, I think its high time we remember how cool and sweet garters can be.

Regards,

John D
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I am so not lesdysxic!

0.1 Creamsicle Cornsake "Yolanda"
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake "Steely Dan"
0.1 Desert Kingsnake "FATTY"
0.1 Black Rat (WV Rescue) "Roberta"

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