Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had my garter for about 8 months now and have a few questions. First, a bit about her. She's a garter from the pet store and is in great health. I've never had any problems with her. Right now, I keep her on Reptile Bark and I've read that some people use Aspen as their bedding. Is this ok for them? I have rats and use aspen with them, so that would save me a good 10 bucks every 2 months if I can use that. Also, my garter has been shedding every month since I got her. Is this normal for garters? She is about 16 inches long and is fixing to shed again. Is it normal for snakes to be exceedingly shy? I have a coconut shell in her aquarium, lots of fake plants, some sticks to climb, a hollow log, part of a cement block to warm up on, and of course, her water. She is in a 20 gallon aquarium (20 gallon tall aquarium. I couldn't find a long one ) and she has a heat light, tempurature cge, and humidity gauge. She almost always stays in her coconut shell and if she is out and I come in the room, she'll immediately leave whatever she was doing and go hide. She hates being handled, so I only do so when necessary. Is this normal? She's been that way since I got her. Also, how long do garter snakes generally live? Last I heard it was around 7 years. I'm hoping she doesn't get tons bigger as I don't really have room for a larger tank. I hear they only need a 10 gallon tank, but it just looked so small when she would stretch out. She never could stretch out, straight, so I decided to move her up to a bit bigger tank. She seems to like it Thanks for all the help

Okay, I'm not as knowledgable as a lot of the people on this forum, but I'll give you some answers from my experience. As to substrate, people use both bark and aspen and are happy with them. I found I wasted too much bark in cleaning, and the snakes sometimes swallowed aspen that stuck to a wet fish, so I just use paper towels. The rest of your set-up sounds a lot like mine. Young garters can shed once a month or more, no problem there, although injuries to the skin like blister disease will cause the snake to shed frequently until healed. Shyness- yeah, most garters are. They don't have the muscle to hang onto you like a boa, they're mostly interested in wriggling away. Individuals vary, but I have one captive born, frequently handled snake that thrashes itself into a fit everytime I pick it up; and a wild-caught adult that will lay across my arm while I change the cage. Go figure. The 20 gallon is a good size, I use 10 gallons for snakes up to about two feet( a 10 gallon is 22" on the diagonal), and 20s for bigger ones. The max size depends on gender(females are bigger), species, and individual variation. I've heard of Floridas going over 4 feet, and I have an albino checkered that is 21" and hasn't grown noticably in a year. Life span also varies, 7 years is as good a guess as any. Well, that's what I have to offer, maybe someone else will correct me or fill in. Good luck.

You seem to be doing pretty good with your garter! It is perfectly normal for them so shed once every month, that shows they are growing quickly and are pretty healthy. All my garters shed once a month. It is also normal for a normal garter to be shy. Garters are nto necessarily the kind of snakes who can't wait to be handled, and considerign he was bought from a pet store does'nt mean anything. Most pet stores catch their garters. You Garter is fine, just handle him gently daily. Also DO NOT keep them is Aspen. Aspen is fine for rats and such, but NOT snakes. The oils and toxins in Aspen can or will get your snake sick and possibly. Keep up the good work!! Also I would reccomend when he gets about 2ft or bigger getting bigger than a 20gal tank.

You do not mention which species you have. Garters are typically shy and some varieties are more so than others. A few species tend to be more prone to "warming up" to their keepers. You cage sounds fine, maybe a bit cluttered. Garters do well with just a hide, clean water and maybe a branch to climb on. Aspen is a great substrate for garters and I use it with many of mine. You want the finer shaved aspen not the large saw dust chips. Garters will crawl in and out of it, which gives them security, and something to do. The wood shavings to avoid are Cedar and to a lesser extent Pine, but Aspen is fine. Another good substrate is carefresh but it is a bit more expensive than Aspen. Young garters can shed quite often, especially on a rodent diet. Measures each shed and monitor the snake’s growth.

Randy
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Firehouse Herps

I'll try aspen next time. Got a few questions, though...How often should I change the cage if she is on aspen? With the reptile stuff I don't have to clean the cage for 2 months, but I do scoop out anything that's dirty every few days. Also, why shouldn't I use the bigger aspen chips? I'd think it would be easier for them to swallow the smaller ones. I'd use Carefresh, but after having used it with my rats for a bit, I found I was rather allergic to it. Made me sneeze like crazy because of the dust. I put all of those plants in there so she'd be able to blend in well as she seemed so shy. Also gives her something to rub up against to shed. I'm not really sure what kind she is. When I bought her, the aquarium just said "Garter snake". It looks exactly like a ribbon snake and looks exactly like snakes I have often found in the yard. I live in Texas, if that helps any as to the species. Right now, she's on a fish diet as the mice here are beyond expensive (I would have to the pre-packaged frozen ones) and I don't think she'd eat them. She's very picky when it comes to food. I've tried to feed her worms, but she turned up her nose at them. Thanks for the help

Wood shavings can be spot cleaned like your bark but it still needs to be changed on Occasion. I like to change mine when it begins to "discolor" or get too compacted. It is an organic material with a high surface area so it does decay. Wood shavings will also mold easily around the water bowl etc. I have noticed that as it gets older the humidity in the cage gets higher (I use plastic bins as cages.) An inexpensive bag of Aspen should last a long time and with the exception of newspaper is probably the cheapest alternative out there. The finer shavings seem to settle a lot better than the large chips giving the snake a better surface to lie and crawl on, at the same time being loose enough to easily burrow in. My experience with this is when I purchased a bag of Aspen and later realized that it consisted of very large shavings. Most bags I have purchased had been smaller. The smaller shavings I use are large enough to prevent easy ingestion by young snakes. Use fish large enough to fill the mouth of the snake so shavings are more easily dislodged from the fish as it passes by the labial scales (around the mouth) of the snake and are less apt to be swallowed. It also helps to feed them in a wider shallow bowl. As for feeding them mice, I have had much better results than with fish. I only have a few Garters unwilling to convert to mice. Rodents are more nutritious per meal and the snake can be fed less often.

Randy
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Firehouse Herps

I'll try that in a few months (I still have quite a bit of reptile bark left over). I'll probably change the bedding about every month, just to be safe, and go from there. The kind of Aspen I have has pieces that are at largest, 1 inch long and 1/2 inch wide, but most pieces are smaller. I think that's the only kind of aspen they have at the stores around here, but I'll check. They might have it in smaller bags like you suggested. Thanks again