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I was keeping a garter cool in a garage type place and the temp suddenly dipped to 28 degrees (32 being freezing). When I found her, her front half was in the water dish and the back half was out. There were rough ice bits around the water dish but the water itself was not frozen. The back half felt like frozen celery or something (kind of crunched when I moved it), but the front half in the water felt normal. She seemed dead. I was careful to not move her much, and warmed her up very slowly (about 40 hours to get up to 40 degrees). When I checked on her the next day, she had moved to the other end of her cage on her own power. I'm giving her a little more time before I pick her up or mess with her. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

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Jamie W.

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

I don't have any experience with what you described, but considering garters are some of the toughest species when it comes to handling cooler temps, that doesn't surprise me. Glad to hear your garter made a full recovery.

Steve
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"Book ‘em, Danno”

I think the water dish was part of the story. I read where Roger Conant experienced racers moving under un-frozen water in otherwise below freezing conditions.
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Jamie W.

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

I once found a small (ca. 10-12" long) eastern gartersnake lying frozen on a sidewalk- the temps were in the upper 20's, and there was even a bit of snow on the ground. I put him in a plastic bag and took him back to work, thinking he was dead, and left him to thaw before I tried to preserve him; a few hours later he was slowly wriggling around in the bag. I set him up in a little tank, but he died a few days later; I don't know if it was the freeze, the rapid warm-up, general stress, the combination of the above, or something else altogether that killed him.

Of course, the famous gartersnakes of Manitoba freeze and thaw with some regularity during the mating season.

I haven't picked her up yet, but she hasn't died yet either. She's hiding a lot, but moving around. I hope she's OK.
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Jamie W.

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

Hi any up dates on this snakes recovery?
I am in Iowa we have tons of cool species of Garters... anyone here like any of the Iowa species?
Take Care
Chris
Link

She appears to be fine now. I'm planning to breed her this year, so we'll see how fine I guess. I'm warming everything up since this year's brumation set up is clearly not well enough regulated. All the garters and eastern fox did fine. I lost a black king (nigra). That hurt!
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Jamie W.

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