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thought I would share this special girl with the rest of the snake world.

In late august of 2007 I was on vacation at Arrowhead Lake in the pocono region of PA. We (my boyfriend and his family) had a lakeside house complete with a canoe, paddleboat, golf kart, and two bicycles. We used them all, even fell out of the canoe into the lake once. But the bicycles were our favorite. A few times a day I would drag him out and we would bike to an edge of this small lake that was bordered by light grey rocks/ boulders.

The area was teeming with thamnophis. Garter snakes everywhere! All we had to do was to walk back and forth at the the edge of the rocks where they met the grass. My first find was an erythristic female. She was the only other snake i dare take from this wonderful place.

On the second to last time we visited these rocks, a very special snake turned up. I was about 15 feet from her upon sighting, and instantly, I knew she was different. She stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the lush emerald blades of grass she was foraging in. But within seconds of spotting her, I was making a MAD dash for her and she in turn was making a mad dash for those rocks! I caught her by the very tip of her tail as she delicately attempted to slip away into a crevice.

Upon picking her up for examination, my boyfriend, who has not long been familiar with the world of snakes, exclaims "what's the matter with it's skin! it looks sick."

But no, she was indeed not sick, but hypomelanistic, or so it is beleived. And to put the icing on the cake, she at that time was carrying a very precious cargo of five little ones! At just fourteen inches, the fact that this garter was carrying young was astonishing for me. She's almost still a baby herself!

So I took her home. A month passes. She gives birth to five bouncing babies. All, as expected, are dark standard looking easterns. Two of them however, have the most peculiar little markings on their heads. On top of their heads between their eyes, they have two little parallel black lines, very close together and about a millimeter in length. They are not something I have ever observed on a garter. Mom shows no sign of these lines. What are they? are they genetic? I didn't think so. Until recently. The two babies that display these lines are slowly lightening up as they grow. Nothing drastic. But it is a noticeable change worth documenting.

Since I wrote that last bit, I lost 2 of the babies for unknown reasons, and one from an impaction. I have two left, now juveniles, and one is substantially lighter, and is getting closer to being as light as their mom with every shed. So having said that, this may be a co-dom hypo instead of a simple recessive!!!

here are some pictures of her:

Awsome.Hope to see you produce more like her.
clark

That is a Killer find!!! Jeff

What a gorgeous and great WC find Shannon! Best of luck with her!

Very nice Shannon

Regards,
Wayne
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1.0.0 Ball Python - Python regius "Cane" Rescue
0.0.1 Eastern MilkSnake WC "Carmello" adult super sweet temperment
1.2.3 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, & Kids (30 plus released!)
2.1.0 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garters
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - "Flame" red and white stripes
1.1.0 Thamnophis sirtalis CB "Flame" & Melanistic
1.0.0 Thamnophis pickeringi - Puget Sound Garter "Sky" (adult, Sky blue)
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua" adult WC
0.1.0 Storeria occipitomaculata - Red Belly snake (Her children were raised & released)
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Juvinile CB
1.0.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major"Limon"
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER" Growing fast!
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal" WC
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
0.2.0. Feline"Felix"(R.I.P. 4/27/08) "Kaja" & "Silver"
2.1.0. calico RATS
2.4.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

Those are strange markings that run across the top of the dorsal stripe and they resemble brown snake markings, and the two black marks under the eyes of the babies are also brown snake traits as you well know Wayne, and a garter having babies at 14" long, also those are brown snake colors, not hypo looking at all to me, not sure what to make of that, but I'm wondering if it isn't a hybrid, it would be interesting to see picts of the babies.
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Jeff Benfer
You'll get your regius's to the wall, man!
1.0 pastel Python regius
0.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
0.2 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.1 Ambystoma tigrinum
2.2 het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.1 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
1.1 heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus

I am sorry, but there is no way this snake is a hybrid. no markings on her are strange. That dorsal stripe is quite normal on many eastern garters... you should probably check out thamnophis.com if you want to learn more. The eastern garter snake can have a very busy checkered pattern with a thich dtripe... or virtually no pattern or stripe at all. I am a garter expert, and I know this snake is no hybrid. it is highly possible for such a young female garter to give birth. It jsut usually does not happen. This is why she only had 5.

here is a picture of her with an identical eastern, except not a hypo. Her babies look just like her, but darker and in miniature.

this snake is absoulte genetically different phenotypically than other eastern garters. Whether it is a cod dom or a recessive hypo... I am still on the fence with.

Ah, and I forgot to add... a hybrid between a Brown snake and an eastern garter, would not magically turn the snake a cream color.

Oh, I'm sorry, your right, I didn't realize you were an "expert" from thamnophis.com, therefore there's no possible way that snake could be a wild hybrid or just a local variation, or a individual variant is there, it must be a hypo.? And also since one of the babies looks a little like the mother "you are thinking it is co-dom rather than a simple recessive" even though naturally occuring color and pattern variations can show up in first generation, and even though you haven't proven any inheritance pattern with further outcrossing, you may be a Thamnophis expert, but your genetics needs a little work.
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Jeff Benfer
My lady, she's got big regius's
You'll get your regius's to the wall, man!
1.0 pastel Python regius
1.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
1.3 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.2 double het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
2.2 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
0.2 het Christmas albino Thamnophis radix
1.1 double het cherry erythristic, albino Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 melanistic Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 triple heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 Okeetee Pantherophis guttatus

LOL

allow me to ask you... why so arrogant? I recieved word from a fellow forum member in private today and thats the only reason I came back here...that you did the same thing to him, tried to put him down and got all arrogant, and you also screwed him over on a deal! Way to go Jeff!!! you are the man. I will be sure to let everyone I see know your awesome reputation on reselling snakes that are already sold. I think you just like to pretend that you are indeed on top of the world, so no matter what I say, you can just keep on pretending since you seem to be so good at it! Never once did I start getting nasty and rude with you, sure I laughed but how could I not!!! the fact that you went and replied with such anger entails that you are an angry spiteful arrogant mean person and you need some help. They have pills for that, Jeff.

I also love the fact that you totally and blatantly ignored my email.

Possibly, you should stop to think that apart from the color phenotype and pattern of the snake, that I keep both garters and Brown snakes, I have owned this particular specimen for a year now, and the snake exhibits NONE, and I mean not a HINT of Brown snake behavior. Hybrids (ball python x carpet for example) exhibit a few characteristics of each parent, most of them lean one way or the other a little more, but they do show both sides of their family tree. She abhors the very existence of slugs, matter of fact she even hates worms and salamanders... Shes a fish and pinky mouse garter. she never does the "lip curling" thing that browns are known for, she's not a reclusive snake that prefers small dark cool hiding places... and no matter what, hybridization does not magically turn a snake pale!!! and yes! there are plenty of co-dom genes out there and its HIGHLY likely that this is yet another, especially seeing as one offspring is SIGNIFICANTLY lighter. Out of ALL the people that have seen this snake and picked her up and poked and prodded her, no one has ever even considered hybridization a possibility. If you had found this snake on your own, everyone here knows that you would not be toying with the "hybrid" junk.

And as for her babies resembling her, its a pretty well known thing that garters with stripes birth mostly striped babies. Garters without a stripe... well you guess it, birth babies without stripes!! Cross a striped and a non striped specimen, and you are likely to get some of those lovely half-striped specimens!

One more point I would like to highlight, is the absence of black labial markings on my snake. Both northern browns and eastern garters have characteristic black markings on their lips, and browns even have them on good portions of their faces. Browns also have very rounded snouts and small eyes compared to ther est of their head. A hybrid between these two snakes should not cause the facial markings to suddenly dissapear. Breed two separate species of kingsnake with a banded pattern, and your babies will come out banded! However, much like my other hypo animals, such as my Hypo Stillwater bulls, the black labial markings that are there on normal specimens are, on this garter, highly reduced, and the rest of her body carries that low-black trait all the way through. The tip of her tongue even exhibits the lightened pale appearance that hypo snakes tend to show and her eyes are cleaner and brighter that any of my other garter.

Take a look at the last picture I posted of her and a closely resembling snake. The checkers on the normal snake are dark brown... and the overall hue of it is green. Look at the checkers on the hypo... they have a light reddish hue... and the overall hue of the snake is a pale creamy tan. that tends to happen when hypo is applied to rich chocolate browns, the less dark pigment there is.. the more the colors come through. her light colored child exhibits the same exact faded red checkers. Brown snakes also have dark checkers... as do normal easterns... so why would a hybrid between a brown snake and an eastern garter magically have light, faded red checkers? and a pale tongue tip? and highly reduced to nonexistant facial markings? These traits are -all- classic characteristics of hypo individuals.

If you are seeing the picture of her next to her counterpart in non-hypo form... are you saying that one's a hybrid too? They have the same exact pattern and shape! Much like when you put a pastel ball and his normal counterpart next to each other... she's just a cleaner, whiter and brighter snake, when compared to others, and its no surprise she did so well living near a large snake laden pile of pale colored rocks!