garter snakes, england ?

[gazzamann]

what is the availability of the garter snake in england i have been looking on the internet and reptile shop etc and it seems they are difficult to get hold of . can anyone help??? cheers gaz

[guidofatherof5]

I'm sure out U.K. members will be able to help.
It would help if they knew what city you are in.

[gazzamann]

i live in the north east around middlesbrough am not sure if you have heard of it

[NickB]

It depends on the type of garter. Chequered Garters are by far the most available (T. Marcianus) but you can get lots of other species too it just takes some searching. Blue Lizard Reptiles have T. Marcianus in CB12 (Captive Bred, 2012) and will courier to you I'm sure. If you want something rarer it might be worth searching for some garter breeders and seeing if they will courier to you or meet you at a show (Next show is Doncaster on the 17th of next month).

[guidofatherof5]

I have now. Middlesbrough - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia;) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlesbrough)

[gazzamann]

yep that it the one lol ;)

[chris-uk]

If you're looking at availability of garters in the UK you will no doubt have discovered that they aren't particularly easy to find compared to snakes like royal pythons, corns and rat snakes. :(

Around Middlesbrough, shop-wise there's a couple, Coast to Coast springs to mind. I've not dealt with them myself but they often have garters in.
Online, if you aren't already looking there, the classifieds on RFUK has the occasional garters advertised amongst all the boas, pythons and corns (I'd estimate one garter for every hundred of those other species).
There's a handful of breeders, none that I've got contact with have any confirmed for sale yet.
September's Donnington IHS reptile meeting promises to have some garters, Sjoerd who posts on the forum will be there with several species including several that are near impossible to find in the UK. If you want to plan ahead take a look at Home - www.crazyreptiles.eu (http://www.crazyreptiles.eu)

Since we got our first garter last September I've been frustrated by the lack of garters in the UK. I got lucky and managed to buy 4 of ours from a keeper near us who had brought extra snakes back from the European shows.

[guidofatherof5]

Thanks Chris.

[gazzamann]

Cheers Chris and everyone thats been helpful :D

[-MARWOLAETH-]

888reptile is where i got my Marcianus

[NickB]

Yeah, I think the less common species of Garter usually come in from Europe or very occasionally shops have them WC.

[reptileparadise]

Thanks Chris!

Yes, we will be bringing a variety of garters to the Doncaster show in September this year! At the moment, we're likely to bring following;


Thamnophis radix ‘tangerine’
Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis
Thamnophis s. parietalis ‘normal’
Thamnophis s. parietalis ‘high red’
Thamnophis cyrtopsis cyrtopsis
Thamnophis radix ‘normal’
Thamnophis s. pickeringii blue
Thamnophis s. sirtalis ‘erythristic’
Thamnophis radix ‘erythristic’

[NickB]

Thanks Chris!

Yes, we will be bringing a variety of garters to the Doncaster show in September this year! At the moment, we're likely to bring following;


Thamnophis radix ‘tangerine’
Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis
Thamnophis s. parietalis ‘normal’
Thamnophis s. parietalis ‘high red’
Thamnophis cyrtopsis cyrtopsis
Thamnophis radix ‘normal’
Thamnophis s. pickeringii blue
Thamnophis s. sirtalis ‘erythristic’
Thamnophis radix ‘erythristic’



Are you attending the Doncaster show next month?Or just September?

[reptileparadise]

Only September.... Its quite a journey and we feel the young garters are not ready for it yet!

[NickB]

Only September.... Its quite a journey and we feel the young garters are not ready for it yet!

Absolutely, It will be nice to see you there. I bet most of the stuff will be sold before getting to Doncaster though?I might have to put my name down for something :) Do you accept payment on the day?

[reptileparadise]

Hi Nick,

We feel a lot will be sold before the show indeed… There is quite a bit of interest coming from the UK audience…
We can and will accept payment at the day of the show, but I’ll contact you in order to explain further.

By the way, thanks for liking our page ;) You’ll see a lot more updates on there then on any of the forums…

[NickB]

Hi Nick,

We feel a lot will be sold before the show indeed… There is quite a bit of interest coming from the UK audience…
We can and will accept payment at the day of the show, but I’ll contact you in order to explain further.

By the way, thanks for liking our page ;) You’ll see a lot more updates on there then on any of the forums…


No problem, that's great. I look forward to hearing from you :).