Selkielass
09-24-2012, 03:21 PM
A little vacatiCanonamily and I went to visit relatives in southeastern Pennsylvania- they live in a condo complex in Washington township, on the edge of Canonsburg lake park. Canonsburg Lake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonsburg_Lake)
My son and I had a great time climbing around in the woods behind the complex, and as we were explring we found a couple ragged, bedraggled chewed up little garters.
We took them in, gave them a soak and what first aid we could, and I looked up Pennsylvania garters to see what we might have. According to the sotes I found, we were outside the range for shorthead garters, so I assumed these must be easterns, and OK to give a hand to.
They were both small, (12 and 20 inches approximately.) ragged looking from retained sheds, and bit up and scabby. Both had heads distinctly wider than their necks. I later found out that one neighbor has an 'outside' cat that regularly leaves beaten up garters by her back door. owch.
One died within a few days, but the other was, aside from being in deep blue, doing quite well. (Not eating, but good muscle tone and tongue flicking.) When are trip was nearly over I had to decide what to do with this (So far) sweet tempered little guy- drop him off back out back to become a cat toy, or take him home and finish the recovery process.
Well, yeah, Softie that I am I took him home. He came out of blue a few days later, ate worms, and with a little help got out of his accumulated sheds. His wounds reopened, but none but one near the end of his tail looked raw, so I treated him with antibiotics and continued to give him the spa treatment, and didn't handle him much.
A couple weeks later, he went into blue again. (As seems to be normal with injured garters who are eating and healing up well. after this shed, his wounds looked good. Then his temperament changed for the worse.
The better he felt, the less he would tolerate handling- he was very runny after his first shed, then after his second, he developed a real attitude, jumpy, and when I went a couple days without touching him, he got a real attitude, striking at my hand repeatedly and latching on to the webbing between thumb and forefinger and chewing enough to draw pinpricks of blood- he repeated this several times.
he was just plain ornery. Pretty to look at, with big eyes, but jumpy and downright mean when he didn't get his way. He would race around the cage every time I approached, and never showed signs of relaxing around people.
As I was looking at him one day, and considering a good spot to relocate him to, I began to suspect something wasn't quite right- although he had a distinct neck, his muzzle was quite short, and his head was differently shaped than any of the easterns I have examined. I started doing scale counts and research and sure enough, his scle counts seemed to match up with a short headed garter... and there was no way I wanted to keep him, even if I could do so legally. (Potected species.)
I considered mailing him back to my relatives for re-release where he was found, but the cat problem still exists there.
I made some calls, talked to the biologists at our local Nature Center, and found a home for him with a wildlife educator who works with the DNR and has permits to keep rehabilitated protected animals.
I still feel a bit bad for removing him from his home territory, but good in that I saved him from a bad situation. Having handled a shorthead (Or an intergrade not far removed.) I wouldn't recommend them as pets based on this guys example. While he somewhat resembled Butlers and Northwesterns physically, his temperament was quite different.
My son and I had a great time climbing around in the woods behind the complex, and as we were explring we found a couple ragged, bedraggled chewed up little garters.
We took them in, gave them a soak and what first aid we could, and I looked up Pennsylvania garters to see what we might have. According to the sotes I found, we were outside the range for shorthead garters, so I assumed these must be easterns, and OK to give a hand to.
They were both small, (12 and 20 inches approximately.) ragged looking from retained sheds, and bit up and scabby. Both had heads distinctly wider than their necks. I later found out that one neighbor has an 'outside' cat that regularly leaves beaten up garters by her back door. owch.
One died within a few days, but the other was, aside from being in deep blue, doing quite well. (Not eating, but good muscle tone and tongue flicking.) When are trip was nearly over I had to decide what to do with this (So far) sweet tempered little guy- drop him off back out back to become a cat toy, or take him home and finish the recovery process.
Well, yeah, Softie that I am I took him home. He came out of blue a few days later, ate worms, and with a little help got out of his accumulated sheds. His wounds reopened, but none but one near the end of his tail looked raw, so I treated him with antibiotics and continued to give him the spa treatment, and didn't handle him much.
A couple weeks later, he went into blue again. (As seems to be normal with injured garters who are eating and healing up well. after this shed, his wounds looked good. Then his temperament changed for the worse.
The better he felt, the less he would tolerate handling- he was very runny after his first shed, then after his second, he developed a real attitude, jumpy, and when I went a couple days without touching him, he got a real attitude, striking at my hand repeatedly and latching on to the webbing between thumb and forefinger and chewing enough to draw pinpricks of blood- he repeated this several times.
he was just plain ornery. Pretty to look at, with big eyes, but jumpy and downright mean when he didn't get his way. He would race around the cage every time I approached, and never showed signs of relaxing around people.
As I was looking at him one day, and considering a good spot to relocate him to, I began to suspect something wasn't quite right- although he had a distinct neck, his muzzle was quite short, and his head was differently shaped than any of the easterns I have examined. I started doing scale counts and research and sure enough, his scle counts seemed to match up with a short headed garter... and there was no way I wanted to keep him, even if I could do so legally. (Potected species.)
I considered mailing him back to my relatives for re-release where he was found, but the cat problem still exists there.
I made some calls, talked to the biologists at our local Nature Center, and found a home for him with a wildlife educator who works with the DNR and has permits to keep rehabilitated protected animals.
I still feel a bit bad for removing him from his home territory, but good in that I saved him from a bad situation. Having handled a shorthead (Or an intergrade not far removed.) I wouldn't recommend them as pets based on this guys example. While he somewhat resembled Butlers and Northwesterns physically, his temperament was quite different.