Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi folks;

Well, this weekend one of my son's friends gave him 2 baby garter snakes(his had a TON of babies). Although I've got experience with a lot of reptiles, this is a first. Today we started setting up a home, and I've got questions. Please bear with me.

The babies are tiny, only about 6-8 inches long, the same size, so I'm not really worried at this point about cannibalism - we put them in a 10 gallon tank with a locking metal screen top. Inside we put half live moss and half sifted beach sand in the bottom, and of course a shallow water pool. They are very active.

My question is in regards to UVB, extra heat and feeding - do I put uvb lighting on them? What about heating - they're in room temp(mid 70's) right now and as I said, are very active. Now for feeding. WHAT? Baby guppies? Pinhead crix? ????? These little guys are teensy yet.

One more dumb question - I have some aquarium gravel here - If I made a hide with the gravel and a hot glue gun or maybe aquarium sealant and let it "cure" outside for a week to get rid of any fumes or whatever, would that be safe to use?

Sorry, but I haven't seen anything out there on garter snake basic care, and we have no local bookstores. I'm just not a snake person, but he is fascinated and I'd like the little guys to live.

I'm not too sure on the questions about furnishings; mine are just on aspen shavings.

UVB isn't necessary. I use Cobra undertank heat pad which provides mine with a warm spot in the 90s. They always take advantage of it after a meal.

I've had good luck getting neonates started on feeder guppies. I place the guppies in the water bowl and they seem to figure it out pretty fast. If they are newborns though, they may not be interested in food until after their first shed.

-Alice

Thanks for the response - I saw that a lot of you seem to be using aspen - I can't buy it here though, and was hoping to avoid paying shipping on that particular item if I could. We have a lot of pets and I use my crosscut paper shredder to make homemade bedding for some of them, but I didn't think shredded paper would be great for snakes so that's why I went with the moss.

I'll try the baby guppies in a bit - the snakes are about 5-6 inches long right now, very small. Working them up to minnows would be a cost effective solution for sure. The heat pad is easy enough, and I won't worry about the uvb bulb. One less thing to mail order.

Now I just have to remodel an old cabinet into a larger tortoise home..............................

Thanks again!

Congratulations on the babies. We have had garters for about a year now and my favorite website is Alan Francis' site:
www.gartersnake.co.uk
He gives some really good down to earth advice and links. You can also get books on garter care at Amazon, either new or used. An excellent starter is a book on Garter and Ribbon Snake care by the Bartlett's.

Good Luck,
Joanna

Hi Joanna;

Thanks a lot for the link etc - we do have a lot of pets here at the house, but these are the first snakes. I drag home all kinds of weird stuff so I wasn't about to tell him no the first time he picked something out for himself.

Have a nice evening!

I am not an expert but I keep over 30 garters of 12 varieties and I have done well with them. Do you know what species you have?

A 10 gal tank is fine as long as they seek out and find food. Some snakes get "lost" in a larger cage and do not find food and water. I have not heard of this with Garters though. You should definitely get rid of the beach sand. I have never used it but I have read reports of people having bad results with it because of salt etc. With Garters I would not recommend using any type of sand. Sand will stick to wet prey and they will swallow a lot of it and there is a risk of intestinal blockage. I would use aspen shavings (not pine), paper towels, a commercial paper based bedding like Carefresh, or maybe clean aquarium gravel as the substrate. A small clump of moss should be a good hide for them. The gravel/glue hide you mentioned might be hard to clean and to much trouble to make to simply throw it away. Another hide option is a small piece of broken pottery or something similar. Keep the cage as simple as possible. Give them enough of a water bowl that they can get into it but keep the rest of the cage dry.

You do not need any UVa or UVb lights but a heat gradient is a good idea. You can either use a light bulb on top the tank (don't cook them) or an under tank heater at one end. 80-85 degrees during the day and 70-75 at night should give you good results. If you use an under the tank heater, put a hide at each end of the tank.

Guppies are a good food. I'd feed them every 2 to 3 days. Adjust the frequency and amount according to appetite and growth. You are not going to over feed a baby Garter. Measuring the sheds can help you determine approximate growth. If the snakes are close to the same size and there are plenty of fish for both, you shouldn't have any serious fights.

CAUTION: If there is any way remotely possible for them to escape they will find it. Make sure the top is complete and secure with no nooks or crannies to squeeze through what so ever.

Garters are basic colubrids and most are easy to take care of. You should be able to find good care sheets online and I encourage you to seek out as many as you can. Care will change a bit as they get older.

Randy

Thanks a lot for the input on the sand, I'll get that out of there right away. I can't get aspen, but will use paper towel etc. The cover on the tank is full metal screen and the frame fits very tight, so I'm not too concerned yet - naturally I really don't want them loose in the house, so I'll be watching the tank closely anyway. Although I can't say I'm a snake person, I would feel terrible if my son's pets didn't do well, because he likes them. Have a great day and thanks for the help.