Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in Southern TX, and recently we've been finding baby snakes slithering along our carpets-in our hallway, bedroom and bathroom! We took one to the vet to find out just what kind they were and the receptionist (who happened to love snakes) told us it looked like a baby Garter. They are so tiny-they look like small skinny worms with tongues....
Does anyone know whether or not the receptionist was right about it being a Garter? I kept 2, they are kind of brownish in color. One is more reddish/pinkish than the other. I hardly know anything about snakes...will they be ok if kept together? What do they eat?
Thanks!

Most likely your vet is right, they are probably baby Garter Snakes.

If you want to keep them, try a variety of foods to see what they like. Each one should be fed separately, otherwise one may start feeding on the other side of the others dinner!

You could try: crickets, mealworms, and pinkie mice (baby mice). As the snakes grow they will eat progressively bigger food, moving from pinkie mice up the chain eventually to hopper mice or even adults.

I've never kept small garters, but check in the garter forums and I'm sure that they will help you out.
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Currently have:
0.1 Antherystic Elaphe guttata
1.0 Elaphe vulpina gloydi
1.1 Morelia Spilota Cheyni
0.1 Leucistic Elaphe obsoleta linheimeri

Saving for:
Agkistrodon Contortix mokasen

From your limited description, it is impossible to say what they are. If they do turn out to be garters, I doubt they would eat mice of any size. Thamnophis, as a rule, feed on cold blooded prey, preferring small frogs, toaads, tadpoles, & fish.

~~Greg~~

IF they are garters, they will not eat insects, and garters do eat rodents, provided the garters are large enough and the rodents are small...

From the limited description, I'm going to guess they're not garters.
If they truly are as small as you say, my guess is blindsnakes. However, my first guess would to be something like Storeria dekayi-Texas Brownsnake, a Virginia species-Rough Earth Snake, or a Tantilla Species-Flathead snake or Blackhead snake, something of that nature. There are lots of pics online.
Google some of these, or a website of Texas Snakes for pics.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Shaky,
yes they are extremely small, I've never seen baby snakes this tiny! I wasn't sure what to feed them b/c it looks like they would have a hard time with ANYTHING. I measured their length and their about 3 inches long, not sure of the diameter. I was thinking about the same diameter of the inside tube of a pen, but it looks like their a little smaller. They have a smooth shiny surface and are about the same transparent color as a worm.
Forgive me for my lack of knowledge, but do all baby snakes use their head to help them "inch" along? They remind me of something an inch worm does, but if you touch their tail, they spaze out and whip around everywhere.
Thank you for the suggestions on what they could be, I will look them up right now and get back to you.

They sound like blindsnakes to me. Blindsnakes frequently show up in houses after heavy rains (as you have had in South Texas).

One easy way to tell would be to look for the absence of obvious separate eyes. Here is a blind snake's head -

Another fairly common south TX snake is the flathead snake. They would have distinct eyes (even if very small).
Here is one from Missouri

and another from near Kenedy, Texas.

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Chris Harrison

I would try feeding them small bait worms. I've kept garters, and the newborns readily take appropriately-sized earthworms.

If you could take a photo of them, we might be more help in IDing them. A newborn garter could easily fit the description you're giving, but so could many other snakes.