Hello from North Dakota

[ChareiHeals]

Hello everyone! My boss and I happened upon who we now call "Steve" in a part of our building that is currently under construction. He got in under a door during a rain storm to find some shelter, and now he's living it up in a tank in my living room.

I'm not sure what sex he is, we just started calling "him" Steve when we got him, and whether or not he is a she or she is a he or vice versa, we will probably continue to call him Steve. I don't know how old he is, but he's been through one shed about a month ago, and his eyes are clouding in preparation for his next shed. He's not completely used to being handled yet, but he doesn't complain about it either. He's approximately 21 inches long, and growing.

I love him. I was wondering if you guys would be able to pin-down what exact breed he is.652465256526

[guidofatherof5]

Nice to have you on the forum.
Looks like T.radix (Plains Garter Snake). A darker phase.
Pretty broad head and thick body so I'm going with female (Stevie:rolleyes:)
I put a link in here so you can sex her yourself or at least see some of the photos need to have us do it for you.
I will also supply a link to the forum care sheet. Very good read and should answer a lot of your question. Anything else can be posted to the forum.
T.radix is an awesome snake although I am a bit bias.
T.radix rocks!:D
Garter Snake Forum - Garter Caresheet (http://www.thamnophis.com/index.php?page=caresheet)
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/breeding/5069-sexing-pics.html
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//744/medium/welcome.jpg

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Welcome to the forum nice ​radix

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Welcome to the forum! That is a very nice looking radix you have. I love the clean yellow stripes.

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard.

[ProXimuS]

Hello and welcome:D Nice lookin girl you got there!

[Invisible Snake]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

[indigoman]

Welcome to the forum!

[Didymus20X6]

http://www.hrwiki.org/w/images/thumb/4/4c/Eh_Steve_shirt_close.PNG/150px-Eh_Steve_shirt_close.PNG

http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/attachments/welcome-lounge/4500d1332817250-just-saying-hi-t9i0px.jpg

[i_heart_sneakie_snakes]

Wow, shes lovely.

[thamneil]

Welcome! Nice looking radix!

[EasternGirl]

Welcome to our forum family! If you love your garter...you are in the right place! Beautiful snake you have there!

[chris-uk]

Welcome aboard.

[mikem]

:) Welcome to the forum! :)

[snake man]

Reminds me of my first ever snake "Sally". P.S Welcome!

http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z438/redcar122/2012-07-03_09-37-35_298.jpg

[ChareiHeals]

How can you all tell hes a she by just a picture?

Oh and I totally upgraded his/her house today! He's now exploring his new shiny 20long digs.

[guidofatherof5]

I've worked with T.radix for along time. After time working with the different sexes you start to see differences in things like head structure and body symmetry.
It was a guess on my part but one I would like to call educated.
Looking forward to seeing some sexing photos and hoping I'm not full of fecal matter.:D

[ProXimuS]

Females are generally quite a bit bigger than males.
Garter Snake Morph (http://gartersnakemorph.com/Breeders-Photo-Gallery.php)
^This is another fourm members website. If you scroll down a good ways there are some pics of different types of males and females together so you can see some comparison.

[ChareiHeals]

So. I know I haven't been around in awhile. But I decided that I wanted to upgrade Steve's diet. I have started feeding him little goldfish. But it seems like goldfish are a lot smaller a meal than his usual earthworms. At what frequency and how many should I feed him the fish?

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Don't feed goldfish because they will kill the snake.Stick with earth worms,instead of gold fish feed safe fish like silversides Have a good read of the care sheet for list of safe fish Garter Snake Forum - Garter Caresheet (http://www.thamnophis.com/index.php?page=caresheet)

[gregmonsta]

Greetings :D

[Light of Dae]

AHHH NO Goldfish!!!!! No minnows either! Very bad.

Go with Guppies or Platys! Both breed easy(and can be kept together) and are pretty if you'd want to start up breeding your own feeder fishes. Or find somewhere that sells feeder guppies.

I have a snake I got from a lady who was feeding minnows and she is now named Twitch cause she was starting to show signs of the deadly B1 deficiency. Which leads to seizures and a painful death. It cannot be 'compensated' for by giving Vitamin B1 because those fish on the unsafe list, inhibit the ability to absorb the Vitamin B1.

PLEASE Heed this warning an use safe fish!! Do not put your lovely Radix through the painful mistake.

Ps. Don't listen to pet stores... They will tell you to feed crickets. Garters do not eat any bugs. Pet store advice will kill a Garter snake.

Please listen to us Thamnophis addicts <3

[ChareiHeals]

I knew that Steve won't eat crickets, and I realized after the fact that feeding them goldfish as a main staple in their diet is a bad decision. Hence why I now have a mini-tank full of pretties for him to watch. I will look into Platys next. But i am thinking he might be able to move on to pinkies soon. I worry that I might be under-feeding him, because he always seems to be hungry even feeding him an earthworm every other day. I'm so afraid i'm gonna kill him it's not even funny. He's such a ham and I love him very much and I don't want to hurt him.

On a side note- My hubby just decided he wanted a snake, so we went out and got him an Albino Corn Snake he so aptly named Ginger Noodle. :)

[guidofatherof5]

I knew that Steve won't eat crickets, and I realized after the fact that feeding them goldfish as a main staple in their diet is a bad decision. Hence why I now have a mini-tank full of pretties for him to watch. I will look into Platys next. But i am thinking he might be able to move on to pinkies soon. I worry that I might be under-feeding him, because he always seems to be hungry even feeding him an earthworm every other day. I'm so afraid i'm gonna kill him it's not even funny. He's such a ham and I love him very much and I don't want to hurt him.

On a side note- My hubby just decided he wanted a snake, so we went out and got him an Albino Corn Snake he so aptly named Ginger Noodle. :)

That's right, I don't eat crickets.:D

[Kasturi]

On a side note- My hubby just decided he wanted a snake, so we went out and got him an Albino Corn Snake he so aptly named Ginger Noodle. :)
Yeah, snakes are contagious! AND snakes happen, like you now know!

[Light of Dae]

You may find the corn snake boring lol Yes they are lazy n easy to hold n hang out with, great snakes for showing off to kids. I let friends kids hold my kingsnake cause she is so lazy they could let her go on the floor n forget about her n she wouldn't go far lol (Not like I'd ever let that happen but just saying)

Garters are way more interesting and active. :)