So a young garter snake decided to move in...

[LMS68]

Hi guys, long time no speak.

A couple of weekends ago, my husband came across a very young gartersnake in our home. We have no clue how long it's been living with us but it was very easy to pick up (didn't try to slither away & behaved as if it was tame) in our front foyer.

Poor little thing had the same mishap as Martha, a bitten off tail. And it was very curious. My husband put it in one of the aquariums all set up for snakes & it had fun checking things out, watching the world go by. We tried for a week to offer it food as well as a pinky... it refused everything until we figured let's try another cut pinky or fish & it finally ate the pinky.

The temperatures are dropping now here, getting ready for winter & I was going to let it go back out but my husband thinks that it may find its way back in the house & probably die here since there is no baby gartersnake food indoors.

Would it be ok to keep it as a pet?

Sorry for the huge photo

 

[DollysMom]

It's totally adorable. I can tell you what to do, but as long as you are willing to make the commitment I see no harm in keeping it at this point. (as long as it's not against the law there).

 

[LMS68]

Yes please! k_01:

Thanks.

 

[Dragonling]

We have a little house guest as well, a little eastern garter. I believe your little friend there might be a northern ribbon snake?

A coworker texted me saying that a family wanted to surrender a snake with a yellow stripe. I figured it was maybe a checkered garter or some other common pet. After work she brings me this fresh-from-the-wild eastern. Apparently the people found it and wanted to sell it if it was worth money, but she quickly talked them out of trying, figuring it'd be better off in my care. Unfortunately it's quite illegal to keep native species here, so this little cutie is getting released in a nice protected woodland area with a lush creek bed very soon.

I would check local laws just to be safe, though being such a common species you might get overlooked anyway even if you were caught somehow.

 

[Nanci]

If you have other snakes, be REALLY careful about bringing a wild-caught snake into your collection. Treat it with EXTREME caution. Snake fungal disease is introduced into our collections from wild-caught animals.

 

[LMS68]

Thanks Nanci, yes I am aware of the risks you mention (hubby & I started researching the heck out of it to see what we could do for it the moment he said "Let's keep it" & I said "Mmmmmmno don't think so" ) & no, we don't have any other snakes at the moment.

 

[LMS68]

Dragonling, it's just a common garter snake or Eastern garter snake.

 

[LMS68]

sorry... Eastern *ribbon* snake. I'm located in Ottawa, Ontario.

 

[LMS68]

Uh... is there an edit button? *facepalms*

Eastern *ribbon* garter snake.... ohhhhh you know what I meant. :crazy02:

 

[LMS68]

Here we go... this is what I have... https://www.ontarionature.org/protect/species/reptiles_and_amphibians/eastern_gartersnake.php

 

[Dragonling]

Contributing members get an edit button. http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/payments.php

It was hard to tell from that particular photo, and there is such incredible variation within sirtalis. I was going by the apparent boldness of the lateral stripes.

It's a little too cold to release a garter in unfamiliar territory, since he may have a difficult time finding an appropriate hibernaculum, so we're keeping our house guest for the time being, with a permit of course. Unfortunately he will not be eligible for release after 30 days in captivity, and I cannot legally sell, trade, or gift him away. I could potentially donate him to a public wildlife center though, so I'm going to first talk to Ohio DNR about legal stuff and then hopefully see if any of the local museums or nature centers would like to add him to their collections.

 

[LMS68]

Lol, yeah I figured that after the 3rd edit post.

It looks exactly like the in the link I posted. Difficult to take a good photo, it's so tiny & I don't have the right lens.

They are so common here, I see them all the time. But I was surprised to see a baby at this time of the year. I mean, we don't have any tadpoles or feeder fish small enough around now (we have a pond). Maybe slugs & worms but temps went down to -4C last night so...

From what I gather so far, it's not illegal to have one in captivity here. Mind you, not sure how someone would find out (unless someone here tells? ).

 

[LMS68]

Booya, another successful feeding! :dancer: This time on the menu, we served fresh rosy minnow.

A better close up... sort of. You can see it only has half a tail.

And that's a tiny minnow.

Screen capture from video... 10 minutes later after getting a good grab of the meal.

Question: why was it rubbing its mouth on the carpet after it swallowed it a good inch?

 

[DollysMom]

Can't answer your question, but he's adorable!

 

[axis1]

Can't answer your question, but he's adorable!

:iagree: DITTO!

Garter, Ribbon, Eastern, Western, regardless of whatever the species, that's definitely a cute looking little sneaky one! Hope it's pest- & disease-free!

Congrats!!!

BTW, when I had a garter snake, he used to LOVE goldfish! (Unsure if they have parasites though, so check out anything you feed him before you do!).

Good luck!!

 

[LMS68]

Yes for sure! (re bug fungi free food & pest & disease free snek)

Thanks... yup, it's a snek... a cutie patootie & I'm happy it's eating!

Oh... according to garter snake sites, one recommended to feed 2 minnows in a row? The one I was on, was saying 2 in a week. So I guess it's like when you feed pinkies to corns.

We just got a kick out of watching it go after the fish.

BTW, how long did you have the garter for Axis1?

 

[Dragonling]

It's SO CUTE watching how excited they get over fish. Of course my little friend has decided it's too lazy to fish out its own goldfish, so I'm going to have to try tong feeding him later. Meanwhile I'm trying to keep these two feeders alive without water conditioner lol. Hopefully filtered water is at least better than straight tap, and they at least still have some of the water from their tank. If they don't get eaten tomorrow morning they're going back to PetSmart to meet our big grumpy sideneck turtle...

 

[Zincubus]

It's probably been mentioned above buy they love earthworms as well !!

Weirdly enough - One of my Garters was having a little roam around and it suddenly launched itself into the dog's bowl and started eating a lump of dog meat ( regular tinned dog food !) ..


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[LMS68]

Yeah, we gave it a little earthworm but I'm not sure if it got eaten. :shrugs:

OMG you should see it go for the fish now... Lol! We plunk it in, it flops around & the little worm just grabs it & gulps it down swiftly. :eatpointe I swear it's all down within one minute. We've done 3 feeds 2 days apart so far with the fish. Based on what we found out, they were saying 2 fish twice a week but it's so itty bitty, how can it fit 2 fish in one feeding?

It's still not afraid of us, which I find odd. He/she is looking good though.

 

[Dragonling]

My little house guest showed zero interest in the fish, even when offered on tongs, but he went crazy for a tuna-scented hairless mouse. Good thing he was big enough to eat a weanling, cuz I only have furry versions of the smaller sizes. I'm thinking either it's a large adult male or a young female.

They seem to have fast metabolisms, and I think fish digest faster than mice. Most garter keepers feed quite a bit more often than corns, but I suppose they eat smaller meals on average. I always fed the teeny baby checkered garters at my previous job one or two small rosies twice a week.

Ours is pretty fearless too, and will strike at just about anything it sees moving. Probably how it looks so well-fed! It probably ate anything that moved!