Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A student brought this in to me. I teach in Detroit MI. He said he got it from his cousin in OH. He didn't know where his cousin got it so can't supply you with habitat info. He thought it might be a gartersnake. I've never seen a brown one but:

1) I've also never seen a baby garter and realize some herps change color patterns as they age;

and 2) realize there can be other color morphs than the ones I'm used to seeing.

If it is a garter, anyone know if this type will eat fish and earthworms (my last garter did)

That is a dekay snake or brown snake(Storeria dekayi), probalbly an integrade between a northern and midland brown. They are completely harmless and don't get to much larger than that. They eat slugs, earth worms, and small insects.
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Matt Kauffman

Thanks Matt!

Based on you ID I was able to Google and find that slugs, worms and small "bugs" are supposed to be satisfactory prey. Hopefully small crickets will be deemed acceptable -- trying to get worms small enough or slugs this time of year would be difficult. Crickets, on the other hand, are easy to get and so easy to gut load.

Good luck with the crickets, it's a long shot.

You can feed the worms some nice greens and veggies from your own salads and leftovers for a couple of days before the are offered to the snake. If the worms are too big - chop 'em up! They will still eat them. A friend of mine had his Brown Snakes eating worms out of his hands in no time. Really cool little snakes!
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Diego

SWCHR

Bugger is just soooo small! I have this recurrent mental image of a nightcrawler beating this lil guy up for his milk money. LOL

I haven't "laughed out loud" like that in a while...

Seriously, it's gross but chopped up worms do work.
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Diego

SWCHR

That information is WRONG...

Worms, Slugs and snails are it for this species.

Dances With Reptiles

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Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey

1.0.0 Ball Python - Python regius "Cain" Rescued from a crack house
0.1.9 Eastern MilkSnake WC "Carmella" adult super sweet temperment (Eggs all hatched!)
1.3.13 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, Copper, Sharon & Kids
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0.2.0 Thamnophis ordinoides - Northwestern Gartersnake(Blue Phase)
1.1.0. Thamnophis elegans vagrans Wandering Garter
2.2.0 Thamnophis Sirtalis - Florida Blue stripe Garter
2.1.0 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garters
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2.0.0 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garters (xtreme orange phase)
1.1.0 Thamnophis RADIX - Snow Het
0.1.0 Thamnophis RADIX - Christmas Albino
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0.0.7 Thamnophis sirtalis - Eastern Garter babies 7/11/08
0.0.7 Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis HET Anerythristic Scott Felzer stock.
0.1.0 Thamnophis sirtalis Eastern Snow "Snowflake"
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis California Red Sided (R.I.P. little guy)
1.0.0 Thamnophis pickeringi - Puget Sound Garter "Sky" (adult, Sky blue)
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua" adult WC Pink eater!
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Sub-adult CB
1.0.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major"Limon"
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1.1.3. Green Anole "Crystal" & "Chris"
0.1.0 Oscar (Astronotus ocellatus) - "Peach" (A Monitor with fins)
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
??.??.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish / Giant roaches
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

I have never known a snake in that genus to take anything BUT worms, slugs, and snails. Slugs seem to be preferred, most of these snakes need to be weaned off of slugs over the course of a few weeks before they will even consider a worm but maybe you'll get lucky. Worms are just as easy to get in the winter as crickets, even easier. If you live near water you can pick them up at many gas stations!

It's probably the same deal with snails -- they make up a large part of the wild diet but you'll probably have even a harder time getting those in the winter than you will with the slugs...

As others have said, you can cut a piece off the worm. Probably pieces skinnier then the snake's head and a little bit longer.

Did try a cricket before reading this and --- no surprise it ws completely ignored.

Did try a couple of small worms. Not sure if they got eaten or escaped into the media but I think he/she may have eaten them.

I have a young dekay, not sure of the sex. I had it for about three weeks before it started taking worms. Now it eats them right off the tongs. I was going to release it but now its getting pretty cold at night, so I think I'm going to keep it through the winter. It has a bad kink on its back, but it doesn't seem to restrict it in any way.
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Matt Kauffman

That is a DeKay's snake (Storeria dekayi). I have not kept the species, but I know that the redbellied snake, a close relative, feeds predominately on slugs. Yours may take small worms -- I buy worms for garter snakes at a local gas station, where they are sold as fish bait. Since the gas stations in my area stop selling worms during the winter, I hibernate all of my garters. If you can't get your snake to feed within a few weeks, I would either release him, or put him in a cool area for hibernation. Like garter snakes, they have very fast metabolisms.

Pinstripe