Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello All,
This is my first but not last visit to this forum. So far I have found some very usefull info here. I do have a question though.
First a little background. I am not new to reptiles as I have had pythons boas & iguanas in the past with great sucess.

My son recently became interested in snakes so I told him to go find a garter. He tried for a few times & just as I thought he would give up he found a beauty. She was about 3-3.5 ft long & apparently gravid. Now here is the question. She had babies lots of babies (unsure of how many yet but looks like more than 20)
We live in Western MA in New England. What spiecies is she likely to be & what will I find locally to feed the babies?
I will post pics later once I get it all sorted out.

Update I now have 70 babies to care for. She actually had 72 but 2 died & birth. Not sure what I'm gonna do with 70 babies. Have called a couple of places to see if I can adopt them out.
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That's an eastern garter, thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis. Big litter!!! they will eat small worms and lots of guppies!!! You might want to release the babies back where the mom was found. they will go thru a shed before they eat for the first time. Nice snakes!!!

Thank you. I really had noting to do with it lol.
I did think of release but am worried that only a fraction will survive (lots of preditors here) but I still might release them.

unfortunately predators are a problem....but that's nature also, the reason they have such large litters.....

I would keep a pair or two of babies, and let mom and the rest go. This way she can reproduce again next year. If she has that many babies it would be a shame to keep her in captivity. This way now you have a nice pair of captive born garters your son can work with. It is a real treat to raise babies to adults. Just my own 2 cents.

>>I would keep a pair or two of babies, and let mom and the rest go. This way she can reproduce again next year. If she has that many babies it would be a shame to keep her in captivity. This way now you have a nice pair of captive born garters your son can work with. It is a real treat to raise babies to adults. Just my own 2 cents.

Thats good advice & just what I did. Mom & 64 babies made their way back to the wild. I kept 4 babies & they have now fed on tiny guppies. As of my last post we lost 2 more babies, that brought the total loss till release @ 4. Not to shabby.
Who knows maybe we will see some of the family again. LOL
Thanks for the input.