Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm not sure if you can tell either by this photo, but we just caught this snake this morning. He/she is 12 inches long. Haven't tried feeding him yet, just waiting for him to settle in.

We've had garters before but haven't had much luck with keeping them. The first one was wc and we had him a year. He quit eating in September of last year and we didn't know if he was getting ready to brumate or if he didn't like the cuisine, so we let him go again. We fed him feeder fish and nightcrawlers. The second was bought at Petco and only lived about four months. He died in August.

So I was kind of cautious about adopting another garter, but he's so darn cute...

Should we try feeding him earthworms? He looks too small to eat fish or nightcrawlers.

Anyway, here is a picture of him.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

12 inches......well he may be an early baby maybe this year born or he may be a juvi from last year which is more likely.

What happened to the garter that stopped easting in septemeber is that he needed to go into hibernation. This snake may also go into that state, so you may want to read a bit on Brumation.

You can feed him earthworms, feeder fish, Trout strips. Make sure you try and limit the feeder fish.

Here is a website with info on how to sex him/her:

Lu
Sexing Garters

Thanks for the information and the link, Lu. Looks like I showed the wrong end in the picture for sexing though! That doesn't really matter to us, as we don't intend to breed. I thought he was pretty young...he'll probably be known as "Tiny" around here until he grows a bit.

That looks like a Plains Garter snake, Thamnophis radix. Nice looking one, too! At 12 inches, it's probably just over a year old (born last summer). Check the taper of the tail in the area of the anal plate; if the taper is uniform, it's probably a male, and if the taper increases noticeably just beyond the anal plate, it's probably a female. That's not a sure way of sexing, especially in yearlings/juveniles, but you might be able to make an educated guess.
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MichaelB