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"

[ Hide Replies ]

• first snake ever - moesy, Wed Aug 16 21:50:42 2006
• RE: first snake ever - MacKenzie001, Wed Aug 16 22:05:14 2006
• RE: first snake ever - althea, Wed Aug 16 22:27:46 2006
• RE: first snake ever - Rivets55, Wed Aug 16 23:19:39 2006
• RE: first snake ever - FunkyRes, Thu Aug 17 01:51:49 2006
• RE: first snake ever - FunkyRes, Thu Aug 17 01:48:10 2006
• RE: first snake ever - kingsnaken, Thu Aug 17 09:19:24 2006
• 1 Other Thing! - kingsnaken, Thu Aug 17 09:23:26 2006
• RE: 1 Other Thing! - moesy, Fri Aug 18 11:24:16 2006
• NEVER USE SAND!!! - kingsnaken, Fri Aug 18 12:38:09 2006
• RE: NEVER USE SAND!!! - rearfang, Fri Aug 18 13:10:43 2006
• RE: NEVER USE SAND!!! - moesy, Fri Aug 18 13:56:19 2006
• RE: NEVER USE SAND!!! - kingsnaken, Fri Aug 18 15:32:14 2006
• RE: NEVER USE SAND!!! - reako45, Fri Aug 18 19:48:56 2006
• RE: NEVER USE SAND!!! - FunkyRes, Sat Aug 19 17:21:41 2006