Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We had an Eastern Ribbon for a year and a half. He died recently and we'd like to replace it with something the same size. We'd like it be able to finish up the livebearers that we already have and then transition it to pinkies. The ribbon that we had was quite skittish. We'd like one that is a little calmer. Is there a similar sized snake that yall would recommend that would meet these requirements?
Thanks

Have you considered corn snakes as an option? Calmer-YES!
A little bigger. Strictly rodents. Beautiful. Check out the corn forum. Duffy

E. garters. Less skittish than ribbon snakes, by far. Easy to convert to mice.

Ribbons and garters are all pretty skiddish even when handled a lot. I'd try a rat or corn snake. They get a lot bigger but are calmer and eat rodents.
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I don't think corns get any larger than garters, nor are they calmer than the E. garters I've kept.

IDK, ive never seen a garter that was over 4-5 feet. My corn is around 4 feet 5 inches now.

Kris
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DON'T TREAD ON ME

...some little, feisty corns! I think that ON AVERAGE a corn will usually get bigger and be calmer. My Peterson guide gives the maximum length for an eastern garter as 48 and 3/4 inches.
Gives 18-26 inches as a normal range. For corns, the max is 72 inches, with a normal range of 30-48 inches.
So...a very large garter would be about the size of an average-sized corn. As for personality...I think that corns have a rep for being calmer...Mine are. But again, you can get some nasty corns, and I have picked up garter snakes IN MY YARD that acted calm as can be when I held them. And others that struck and musked, etc.
I really do think that corns would be a good next step up.
I enjoy both garters and corns (and the larger ratsnakes, too).

Well, consider that nearly all garters you see were wild caught...even so, wild garters will often be very calm, as you noted.
Wild corns...I don't know about how calm they are!

I've found that most garters, if you get them when they are relatively small, tame down rather quickly. The big female garter I caught (and she was very large) was a fighter, but within a couple of months she also became accustomed to gentle, slow handling. I haven't found any garters to be particularly nervous or flighty once used to you--ribbon snakes certainly are, though.

I've had garters in my twenty years of keeping them that have become used to me . . . but to say they were calm would be a huge stretch. i've never however, kept an eastern so maybe that's the difference. I've had a couple that were calmer when out of their enclosures than when in, even if they just got to sit on top they were "happy".
e

It may be that Easterns are calmer...growing up, I encountered a lot of tame garters. My high school had a young one that would calmly wind around your hand and just sit there, for an hour, in the class. I guess he liked the body heat. <g>