Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A guy I get rodents from has a ribbon snake that someone dropped off and he's offering it to me since he's full up. I don't know if it was an abandonded pet or a fresh wild caught from someone's yard.

I haven't kept thamnophis since I was a kid, and those were all wandering garters, so I thought I'd run the setup I was wondering about using by ya'll and ask a few questions.
20 gallon long, warm end of 85ish, probably using a low watt redlight. Cypress mulch for the substrate, cork for hides, stuff to climb on.
I dont' know about the water bowl size and diet though; I've heard confilicting things. The thamnophis I kept as a kid *loved* swimming so I gave them huge waterbowls (about 1/3 of thier cage was a water bowl--I used small kitty litter pans). Do ribbons swim, or are they less fond of water than garters?
I've also heard conflicting things about diet; some sources say they love worms, others that they won't touch 'em. My garters used to eat a mix of worms, minnows and small mice; would this work for ribbons? Or are they strictly fish and frogs?

Ribbons tend to turn their nose up at worms... actually most ribbons run away from them like they are scared haha!! They are VERY fond of fish and can usually be conditioned with ease to accept frozen thawed rodents using scenting. I did have a ribbon once though that loved worms more than anything else in the world... so it never hurts to try!

Your setup sounds fine.

My ribbon snakes love water, and as Shannon stated, most ribbons would rather starve than eat worms.

Ribbons also love to climb on things...

-----
Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey
Thamnophis US
Dances With Reptiles

1.1.0 Thamnophis Infernalis- California Red Sided Garter Snakes
1.1.0 "flame" erythristic Eastern Garter Snakes
1.2.0 Melanistic Thamnophis Sirtalis Sirtalis
?.?.1 Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis Albino
2.1.0 Thamnophis RADIX - Iowa Snow
1.1.0 Thamnophis RADIX - Snow Het
0.1.0 Thamnophis RADIX - Snow/Nebraska Albino double Het
0.1.0 Thamnophis RADIX - Christmas Albino
0.1.0 Thamnophis cyrtopsis Easter Black Neck Garter "MoJo"
0.1.0 Thamnophis sirtalis Eastern Snow "Snowflake"
1.1.0. Thamnophis elegans vagrans Wandering Garter
2.1.0 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garters
0.0.1 Thamnophis HybridAlbino Checkered Normal eastern"Mutt"
2.0.0 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garters (xtreme orange phase)
0.0.1 Thamnophis butleriButler's Garter Snake
0.0.4 Thamnophis proximus orariusCoastal Ribbons
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - Eastern Garter baby
0.0.3 Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis HET Anerythristic
1.0.0 Thamnophis pickeringi - Puget Sound Garter "Sky" (adult, Sky blue)
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua" adult WC Pink eater!
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Sub-adult CB
1.0.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major"Limon"
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER" Getting Huge!
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal"
0.1.0 Oscar (Astronotus ocellatus) - "Peach" (A Monitor with fins)
1.0.0 Ball Python - Python regius "Cain" Rescued from a crack house
0.1.9 Eastern MilkSnake WC "Carmella" adult super sweet temperment (Eggs all hatched!)
1.5.0 Storeria dekayi - Brown Snakes Casper, Xena, Athena, Copper, Sharon & others
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
1.1.0. calico RATS
??.??.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish / Giant roaches
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

Cool I'll be taking it in then. Cute little bugger aren't they? Are they once a week for feeding, or do I need to feed them 2-3 times a week? Or more?

Now to find a 20 long in my pile of empties