Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I now keep 2 seperate colonies of Pacific NW garters, RedSpots and Puget Sound, 1.2 of each. The Reds came to me very young as pinky eaters. Within the past few months they have put on some size so they are now out & about exploring their enclosure. The Reds are fed individually, in seperate containers as I have always done ...

The Puget Sounds however came to me as adult fish eaters. Seeing that they are described as being "aquatic" and fish eaters, I put a water filled 9 X 12 rectangular glass baking dish in their enclosure. One of the females is considerably larger than the male & second female. While I had never fed garters together before (or in their enclosure for that matter) it seemed okay to put about 40/60 rosies in the water "dish" for them. For the first few months the large female would dominate at feeding time. The other 2 would watch with the male occasionally doing a snatch & run with a fish. I would allow the big girl to feast then remove her so the other 2 could eat. As time went on this progressed to all three of them swimming around and feeding together. Last week this abruptly changed. Instead of diving in as usual, the big girl avoided the water and seemingly chose to hang around in the background. The smaller female grabbed a fish, taking it out of the water, holding it high and much to my surprise the big girl came out of nowhere and snatched it from her. Not earth shattering I know but what I observed was her doing it repeatedly to both of the smaller snakes. She did not enter the water dish at all, rather she laid in wait *hidden* then pounced on whomever had scored a fish and stole it. I found this very interesting as well as it appears to be a "new", learned behavior and deliberate. I now remove the big girl and feed her in a seperate container.

BTW ... all of the Puget Sounds have eaten f/t pinks but only as an incidental catch, meaning if they're very hungry and I toss a few in with the fish they are bound to eat one, lol ...

Thanks for these two posts, MT. I keep local (Ohio) garters and just enjoy them. I have no interest in acquiring other locals, and I'm not an real expert (hobbyist for almost 40 years), so post like yours hold more interest for me than requests for expert advice or posts bragging on who's the top of the garter pecking order. I've noticed my garters and my eastern hogs, and maybe our eastern fox snakes, seem to be the most alert, intelligent, and socially interactive.

Again thanks!

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Jamie W.

(url)http://rosyboas.tripod.com(/url)

hey Jamie W ... that's a very nice looking eastern you have there Do they all display that much orange in your neck of the woods ??? So glad you enjoyed my posts as I wasn't sure too many would be interested. I usually raise up 2 different colonies then trade them off for different sub-species. I tend to keep them for 2 or 3 years. I have kept high end Corns in the past as well and while the genetics of the Corn produce some magnificent looking animals IMO they seem to have the personality bred out of them for lack of a better term. I did have a Corn/Rat cross that was the closer to "wild". She clearly interacted with me but a Garter she was not, lol.

Also of interest on the Garter side is I find that select sub-species appear to be much more arboreal then others. My E. Black Necks were ALWAYS wrapped around the electical cord that connected their light source. So much so that I was always having to re-secure the cord. They had driftwood and plastic plants to climb on (they all do) but those wanted to be in the highest spot possible it seemed. Surpisingly to me, my Reds also want to climb. They are still young so I am not sure if it's because they have just reached a comfortable stage just beyond the baby "hiding phase". My Pugets climb somewhat but are clearly ground dwellers.

enjoy your day and thanks for sharing !!

I've only found that much significant reddish-orange on just that one. I've been working a different location that has a fair amount of reddish on about one out of 30. I like these guys are urban herps and I have been able to leave to hunt them, find some, and then be home, all within an hour's time. I'm hoping they will breed to make a nice project to try to bring out more of the red (Not an entirely original idea - I know). Here's a blurry pic of a different one wrestling a dull brown one for minnows. I have them cooled right now, so new pics may have to wait until spring. They are hard to get pretty photographs of, because, as I'm sure you know, they are pretty fast moving.

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Jamie W.

(url)http://rosyboas.tripod.com(/url)

That is pretty interesting that she's learned to let the smaller two garters do all the work, and then pounce on the easy meal. Kind of reminds me of a pride of lions, where the females hunt, come back with the kill, and the male is there to claim first dibs. Sounds like your large female is playing the role of head lion.

Steve