Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently caught a beautiful Red Spotted Garter and decided to keep it as long as it seemed happy. It's about 30 inches long. I'm having trouble sexing it - any suggestions?

I spend much of the year doing environmental education programs for mostly sixth graders, but anywhere from 2nd through 12th graders. This means that I can keep the snake in its native temperatures and fresh air for the 8 warmest months of the year. This has worked well for the Northern Alligator Lizards and Giant Northwest Millipedes I have caught before.

I can also feed it the rough skinned newts that I saw it eating before I caught it. Will it need more variety than that? I know I can catch the newts pretty easily at least during those warm 8 months. They're everywhere in the pond - sometimes you can't throw a basketball in the pond without hitting one. Should I try to supplement the diet with worms or mice? It's been eating fine (at least when there's not a group of students freaking out about the fact that it's eating a newt - they learn all this cool stuff about the newts, including that they are highly poisonous, and then they see a snake eating one. It ends up freaking out the kids, which stresses out the snake. I've had to get rid of more than one half eaten, bloody, still alive newt. Now that I've figured out not to feed it when anyone else is around, it eats pretty voraciously).

One of the reasons I considered keeping this particular snake is that it was quite calm when it was caught. Very docile and not stinky at all. The first few times i picked it up after that it was still quite docile (and cold, which might have been part of it). Recently it has gotten pretty skittish. I don't want to stress it out, but I want it to be a snake that could eventually be handled by children, or at least handled by me in the presence of children. Any suggestions other than just handling it more and more?

Are there any tank additions I could make that would appease it? (right now it's in a 20 gallon with bark, a heat source, a water dish big enough for a newt, and a stick and two hefty pieces of bark from the snake's native habitat).

Input on any or all of this would be greatly appreciated. I want a happy snake.

My Dallas

Since the snake is 30in. long .It is probally a female.It is probally going to wind up being gravid.Almost all females are gravid this time of year.A classroom full of kids will really stress this snake and maybe even kill it.I would look for a captive bred snake.Eventually you will come across a cheap one.
Tom

It's not really a classroom FULL of kids. It's usually no more than 6 at a time, and the total time that kids are in the same room as the snake is no more than a couple of hours a day. I can control how close they get to the tank, and how much access they have.

What time of year do they normally give birth? Will she be OK after that?

I believe as long as it eats well and maintains its health you needn't worry too much about its stress level. If it deviates from its feeding pattern for other than seasonal reasons or it becomes increasingly agitated you should pull it from your educational program. As far as diet I would switch it to frozen/thawed rodents and maintain it on that. This is much easier and safer for the snake in a captive environment. Amphibians carry internal parasites and a captive snake will suffer detrimental effects from them where a wild snake will not. My Red-Spotteds are thriving on rodents. Besides...Newts are cool and rodents are snake food LOL.

Randy

Is there some inherent advantage to frozen rodents? I can get pretty regular access to live mice of various sizes. As long as Dallas is hungry, would it be a problem to feed her live mice?

I have never attempted to feed live rodents to a Garter snake but I see a potential problem. Live mice can be dangerous to a snake, particularly a captive snake. Garter snakes do not constrict their prey but over power it. These two facts could spell trouble for your snake. A pinkie mouse should not be a problem but if the rodent is old enough to bite I would definitely use pre-killed prey. The other main advantage to frozen and thawed rodents is simply convenience.

Randy