Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently purchaced either a garter or ribon grass snake and in one and half months it has increased it's size by nearly 1/3. I just wanted to know if this is normal and if it is healthy or maybe i shouldnt feed it to much, also i used to live in california and "despite what the typical caresheet says" I happen to knoiw that they get more then 5 foot in length at times. I was wondering if there are any experianced garter keepers that can let me know what is the normal growth rate per year of a garter. Also I was wanting some breeding info for garters if there is any out there. Thank you for your time.

Kingsnakekeeper.

When food is plentiful, they grow fast. When food is not plentiful, they do not grow as fast. That simple.

Any snake, if in an environment with plenty of available food, will take advantage of it as long as temperatures comply.

So it is entirely up to you what growth rate your snake experiences. "Normal" is what the environment supports.
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Mark

young ones will grow fast with a plentiful diet.... also, there are no garters over 5 feet long....giant garters, thamnophis gigas averages 4 feet. some of the garter species are smaller than others, but the average species grows to 3 feet for females, 2 feet for males. you might have a ribbon snake....they are commonly caught in large numbers and dumped on pet stores. there are care sheets and all the info you could want at thamnophis.com it's a garter snake forum...lots of us garter fans there.