Cool, thanks a lot, I will have to read through those for some more info.
Garter Snake Questions
- Thread starter jjsull33
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+1 Yellowfoot. Http://thamnophis.com is hand's down the best forum for Garter, ribbon, and water snakes.
If you opt for live feeder fish, do guppies or endlers. Goldfish and rosy red minnows are NOT appropriate feeders. Goldfish are all around inadequate nutritionally, and both are high in an enzyme called Thiaminase that blocks the absorption of Thiamin. Thiamin deficiency is very dangerous and can be fatal.
You can use a mixture of earthworms/nightcrawlers, slugs, silversides (whole frozen fish, common feeder for carnivorous fish and therefore available in many pet stores), guppies, and of course mice. One big reason people switch to mice is convenience. As far as which is ideal... That's highly debated in and of itself.
If you can, you should look into getting a captive bred garter. Catching one may be easy and "free," but a captive bred specimen is going to be healthier and much better adapted to captivity. Besides, if you go CBB, it gives you the option of all the different, beautiful species and morphs to pick from.
If you opt for live feeder fish, do guppies or endlers. Goldfish and rosy red minnows are NOT appropriate feeders. Goldfish are all around inadequate nutritionally, and both are high in an enzyme called Thiaminase that blocks the absorption of Thiamin. Thiamin deficiency is very dangerous and can be fatal.
You can use a mixture of earthworms/nightcrawlers, slugs, silversides (whole frozen fish, common feeder for carnivorous fish and therefore available in many pet stores), guppies, and of course mice. One big reason people switch to mice is convenience. As far as which is ideal... That's highly debated in and of itself.
If you can, you should look into getting a captive bred garter. Catching one may be easy and "free," but a captive bred specimen is going to be healthier and much better adapted to captivity. Besides, if you go CBB, it gives you the option of all the different, beautiful species and morphs to pick from.
I wouldn't just capture one to keep, I will definitely buy one from a breeder, it won't be until this fall though. I signed up for the thamnophis forum, thanks for all the advice, what about humidity? Where should I keep the humidity level, I can't seem to find that info.
From all that I've found, humidity for garters seems to be much like humidity for corn snakes and other hardy, North American colubrids... As long as he's hydrated and shedding well, it's largely non issue. (Bad sheds are the first sign if dehydration in a snake.)
I have also never really seen humidity brought up, other than to say make sure substrate remains dry as one big concern/paranoia among Thamnophis keepers seems to be scale rot.
I have also never really seen humidity brought up, other than to say make sure substrate remains dry as one big concern/paranoia among Thamnophis keepers seems to be scale rot.
My parents have a koi pond in their yard (my mom loves her fish) and it has common garters from the yard that pick off the small fish and keep the population under control, I will probably make a mini version of mom's pond for my enclosure, as I plan on making it a large enclosure and they seem to love swimming so I will scale it down (her pond is like 10-15 ft long and 6-8 ft wide, plus around 6 ft deep) and make a replica but indoors, and focused on the snake rather than fish.
jjsull33 said:
I like it. You've almost got me convinced I need a pond or at the least a large, pond/dry land setup for in the house, after all, we still have empty counter space in the kitchen.
Hah! Sounds like a plan to me! I am in need of an entertainment center for my room, and I'm thinking of getting one with tall book shelves and some how converting them into enclosures. I will probably make the whole thing myself so I can customize it exactly as I want in terms of depth and if I am going to make a pond I'll need to hook some sort of plumbing into it for easy draining. I'm thinking keep one side tall and get a big snake, and split the other side in half and get 2 garters on the other side, maybe different morphs. We will see haha.
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