Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i found a checkerd garter hatchling in the woods and im thinking about going and looking for it again to keep it,i have never kept wild snakes.is this a good idea,if so what would i need

That's a hognose snake. A badass one at that. Check the hog forum for more info. I'm a big fan of those snakes, real cool animals. Keep it but be sure to ask any and all questions of the people in that forum, they'll help you out bigtime.

If you can get a captive Bred checkerd garter, that would be the best choice, however, I don't see a problem with someone collecting a wild caught garter, or other snake for that matter, so long as it's not a threatend or endangerd species, and it's not commercial collecting. I do see checkerd garters on the classifieds quite often, so that would be my recommendation. They are a good choice for a garter. Very hardy, excellent feeders, and will eat rodents, or convert over to rodents pretty easy. Nice hognose by the way.
Steve

>>i found a checkerd garter hatchling in the woods and im thinking about going and looking for it again to keep it,i have never kept wild snakes.is this a good idea,if so what would i need

thanks,and also i live in new york i dont think checkered are native is there an eastern species that resembles it.i really like this snake it looksa nice and pretty calm for a young garter

Man, did you read the replies?

Thats NOT a garter, thats a hognose Snake.

There are eastern garters in New York. Most garter snakes have the checker pattern to some extent. The snake you have in the pic is a hognose snake.....that's not the snake you are referring to is it??

What you had found was an eastern garter, and many of them do have a nice checkered pattern. I don't think you'll have too much of a problem finding or purchasing one that has a simular look. I've found quite a few eastern garters in Va. this year, and a good many have had nice checkering. Good luck.
Steve

>>thanks,and also i live in new york i dont think checkered are native is there an eastern species that resembles it.i really like this snake it looksa nice and pretty calm for a young garter

Here's a nice little checkerd eastern garter we found last fall. He was tickled to see us.

...number one, that's not a hatchling. Number two, that's not a Garter Snake. Number three, what the hell is a Western Hognose doing in the forest in New York?!

Today's not April 1st, is it?
-----
Diego

Diego & Tiffany's Zoo:
SNAKES
1.2.0 Corn Snakes (Different morphs)
1.1.0 Hypo Everglades Rat Snakes
1.1.0 Trans-Pecos Rat Snakes
1.1.0 Salt and Pepper Bull Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Pacific Gopher Snake
2.1.0 Sonoran Gopher Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Sonoran Gopher Snake
1.1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnakes
1.0.0 Gray Banded Kingsnake
1.0.0 Hypermelanistic California Kingsnake
0.1.0 Albino High White California Kingsnake
0.1.0 California Kingsnake
1.1.0 Thayeri Kingsnake
4.2.0 Rosy Boas (Harquahala, Mexican, Temecula, & Mid Baja)
1.1.0 Kenyan Sand Boas
0.1.0 Indonesian Dwarf Pacific Boa
1.1.0 Cape York Spotted Pythons
1.1.0 Western Hognoses
1.1.0 Red Sided Garter Snakes

LIZARDS
2.0.0 Bearded Dragons
0.1.0 Eastern Collared Lizard
1.0.0 African Fat-Tail Gecko
0.1.0 Merauke Blue Tongue Skink
1.4.0 Leopard Geckos
1.0.1 Yellow Niger Uromastyx
1.1.0 Chuckwalla
0.1.0 Banded Gecko
0.0.1 Gold Dust Day Gecko

AMPHIBIANS
1.0.1 Green Tree Frogs
1.0.0 Bubbling Kassina
0.0.1 White's Tree Frog
0.0.2 Gold Frogs
1.0.0 Fire Salamander

When I first read it, I was also confused with the question about a checkered garter and having an attached pic of a western hog. After reading it a second time, I realized the picture had nothing to do with his question. He said he found a checkered garter hatchling in the woods, and was thinking about going and LOOKING FOR IT AGAIN!

>>i found a checkerd garter hatchling in the woods and im thinking about going and looking for it again to keep it,i have never kept wild snakes.is this a good idea,if so what would i need