Help getting temps right for Checkered Garter

[Rushthezeppelin]

So I recently found a garter who hitchhiked on my fishing stuff one day. Did research and decided to keep her. Had her in a 2.5 gallon plastic terrarium at first and while she seemed okay in there I wasn't able to get great temp gradient and I've read that they generally stay more active in a bigger terrarium which means less stress and better health. Problem is I'm still have problems I think getting it all right. I tried a couple of thing and now am trying a 40w blue bulb with a cheap light focuser (the kind you use for car work). My ambient temps are about 78 on cool side and 88 on warm side with this setup which seems fine. But using my iphone flir camera (one of the perks of being an energy inspector) I'm getting readings about 100-101 in the center of the basking light which is focused on the hot side hide. Is this too much? I'd imagine there are plenty of rocks in his natural habitat here in central Texas that easily hit those temps on hot days but then I don't know if they really like basking on something that hot or not. Am I just about right on my setup finally or do I need to move the tank someplace where I can elevate the basking light a bit?

[Albert Clark]

Hello and welcome to the forum! We are glad to have you. Definitely 100f is way to hot to allow. The enclosure temp gradients sound good. 88f I think is more than enough for a warm side temp for a garter. If you want the basking light, then yes , I would move the tank to a location where I can elevate the basking light to a temp of 88- 89. Good luck.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Well looks like I've just about nailed the temps. Thanks for the advice. BTW here's Delilah (pretty sure it's a girl, does have a short fast tapered tail) Hanging out on top of her hot hide enjoying the basking lamp.



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[d_virginiana]

Nice looking garter. Can we get a full body pic of her? I ask because if she's wild caught there's a decent chance you could end up with some baby garters before the summer is out :)

88 seems a bit warm to me, but it should be fine as long as the cool side is reliably around 80.

If I could give you a quick suggestion on cage decor, you could consider getting fake plants from your local craft store (if they have that weird perfume smell to them, just wash them off) and disperse them around between the hides. The increased cover makes them feel safer and they'll spend a lot more time out in the open for you to watch them!

[Rushthezeppelin]

Kinda hard to get a full pic of her at the moment. She went into hiding after I had to clean out her water bowl. Not sure if she's old enough to have babies, only about 11 inches long so I was kinda guessing that she was just born this spring but I don't know if she potentially would have grown that slow in the wild to where shes over a year.

As far as the plants, I'll look into that. Less stress on her the better as she is usually pretty skiddish. I've only had her for two weeks though so she's still trying to wrap her little brain around the fact that nothing in my place will hurt her. Oddly enough once I pick her up she calms down a whole lot, rather good with being handled.

[Tommytradix]

Kinda hard to get a full pic of her at the moment. She went into hiding after I had to clean out her water bowl. Not sure if she's old enough to have babies, only about 11 inches long so I was kinda guessing that she was just born this spring but I don't know if she potentially would have grown that slow in the wild to where shes over a year.

As far as the plants, I'll look into that. Less stress on her the better as she is usually pretty skiddish. I've only had her for two weeks though so she's still trying to wrap her little brain around the fact that nothing in my place will hurt her. Oddly enough once I pick her up she calms down a whole lot, rather good with being handled.
if shes 11in she was born last spring they grow slower in the wild. my tanks range from 75-90 my tank is a 29 tall so i have a 75w daytime buld in one and a 25w nightime in the other. on the lights packaging you will see a temp guide as to how many inches it has to be from the target area to achieve the temps you want for basking. i also have a temp which helps out alot. my house is air conditioned so it takes a bit more to reach the temps i want. you dont have to get it perfect garters do very well in captivity and as long as your around 75 and no higher than 90 your garter will do just fine. have you offered food yet? and if so what did you offer? albert has checkereds so he will be a big help ive noticed different species prefer different food and diferent levels of humidity from my experience with the ones ive kept

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[d_virginiana]

I agree with Tommy, she's probably a yearling at that size. I've heard of females breeding that young, but it's pretty unlikely especially at that size.

For food I've noticed even individuals of the same species will have preferences, and then suddenly decide they want to eat something else. Trying different things until you find what she really likes is best IMO.
Also, are you looking at fish as a potential food source? I ask because there is a lot of debate over the safety of various species of fish and sources of fish, and potentially even negative effects of a fish heavy diet even if you stick to safe species. That sort of thing isn't mentioned on a lot of online caresheets, so I'm sure everyone here would be happy to give you info on that if you're curious.

[Tommytradix]

I agree with Tommy, she's probably a yearling at that size. I've heard of females breeding that young, but it's pretty unlikely especially at that size.

For food I've noticed even individuals of the same species will have preferences, and then suddenly decide they want to eat something else. Trying different things until you find what she really likes is best IMO.
Also, are you looking at fish as a potential food source? I ask because there is a lot of debate over the safety of various species of fish and sources of fish, and potentially even negative effects of a fish heavy diet even if you stick to safe species. That sort of thing isn't mentioned on a lot of online caresheets, so I'm sure everyone here would be happy to give you info on that if you're curious.
on the fish comment. i have always fed a variety of nightcrawlers, pinks, smelt, salmon and tilapia. but a couple weeks ago i fed salmon and every snake that ate it died i lost 10 babies and one adult had a siezure. so i no longer feed salmon or smelt. tilapia has given me no problems and they love it so thats the only fish i offer now

[d_virginiana]

on the fish comment. i have always fed a variety of nightcrawlers, pinks, smelt, salmon and tilapia. but a couple weeks ago i fed salmon and every snake that ate it died i lost 10 babies and one adult had a siezure. so i no longer feed salmon or smelt. tilapia has given me no problems and they love it so thats the only fish i offer now

Where was the salmon from? I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that's one of the fish that is more likely to be wild-harvested than farmed whereas I think tilapia is almost exclusively farmed now (could be wrong on that; I'm not an aquaculturist). There's also apparently a preservative that is sometimes present in 'fresh' fish at the supermarket that can be fatal to garters. I try to stay away from fish altogether now, the only exception being the occasional f/t silverside to get my old blind guy eating. I'll also use guppies for non-eating babies, but that hasn't been an issue for me in awhile.

[Albert Clark]

on the fish comment. i have always fed a variety of nightcrawlers, pinks, smelt, salmon and tilapia. but a couple weeks ago i fed salmon and every snake that ate it died i lost 10 babies and one adult had a siezure. so i no longer feed salmon or smelt. tilapia has given me no problems and they love it so thats the only fish i offer now
Wow! Sorry to hear that Tommy. Salmon should be ok as long as it's the Atlantic salmon. Tilapia is ok too. I think the smelt is questionable but as long as that isn't fed on a regular basis. Some other safe fish are the ocean perch and croaker. All these are per garter snake info.com. The thing that is important is the conversion over to a rodent based diet is the best. Even though garters are not mice hunters in the wild or by nature, they do well in captivity once they are converted. Nightcrawlers are a preferred food of checkereds as well as fish and frogs. They need to be converted to rodents right away though.:)

[ObsidianDragon]

Another suggestion--get some eco earth or something in there rather than the reptile carpet. My little checkered loooves to dig. That plus some fake plants might help her out a lot!

[Rushthezeppelin]

Definitely going to look into some fake plants to lush up her home a bit. She was in a good mood today to be handled (plus she wasn't full like the other night) so I managed some photos.

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Shes (I figure yall can confirm that for me based off these pics) absolutely beautiful and doesn't have a single scar on her as far as can tell, prolly pretty impressive if she is a yearling.

She's been eating mostly live guppies and mosquitofish with some worms mixed in. Going to have to try soon to get her on F/T stuff but it might be a bit till I can pull that off as she usually likes her privacy while eating (at least with fish, she's a little more of a gogetter with earthworms) so I wouldn't be able to induce movement for her.

[d_virginiana]

I'm glad she seems to have adjusted to captivity so well! If she's eating other foods, it's good to get her off guppies/mosquito fish as soon as possible. They can be excellent to get them started eating, but the ones sold at petstores are kept in unsanitary conditions and often have parasites that can be transmitted to the snake (not as much of an issue if you're raising your own).

[Rushthezeppelin]

I'm glad she seems to have adjusted to captivity so well! If she's eating other foods, it's good to get her off guppies/mosquito fish as soon as possible. They can be excellent to get them started eating, but the ones sold at petstores are kept in unsanitary conditions and often have parasites that can be transmitted to the snake (not as much of an issue if you're raising your own).

The guppies came from a friend who has had them for years and keeps them super clean. These were some offspring of her main momma fish. The mosquitos were from a high end aquarium store that mostly focuses on saltwater and as far as I could tell were kept in good conditions (not sure if they bred them or not though). Still best to get to pinkies if possible I know so that I can still get some complete nutrition without risk of parasites. Is she big enough to take a whole pinky down or would I have to part it out for her?

[d_virginiana]

The guppies came from a friend who has had them for years and keeps them super clean. These were some offspring of her main momma fish. The mosquitos were from a high end aquarium store that mostly focuses on saltwater and as far as I could tell were kept in good conditions (not sure if they bred them or not though). Still best to get to pinkies if possible I know so that I can still get some complete nutrition without risk of parasites. Is she big enough to take a whole pinky down or would I have to part it out for her?

That should be fine then. The main parasite risk is when you get feeders from chain petstores.

I personally keep cutting pinkies up for mine long after they could take a whole one, so that's what I'd recommend :rolleyes: When in doubt I think it's always better to feed them smaller bites than larger.

[Tommytradix]

mix worms with whatever you want her to eat. she seems to like them alot so it will work

[Albert Clark]

Beautiful checkered girl. Looks to be in great shape.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Well, have the vivarium much more filled out now.
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Her dish is kinda off in the back left corner now, might rearrange that to be less secluded but I'm sure she will love it. Still left her basking area mostly clear, makes sense that hot be sunny and shade be cool.

The more I'm looking at pictures and videos of other peoples stuff the more I want to basically make a wood framed vivarium that would have hinged front doors like the exoterras. I also want to make one of those waterfalls that somebody had.

[d_virginiana]

Setup looks good :) I like how you actually bothered to organize the decor. Other than putting in hides, I pretty much just throw fake plants on the cage floor and tell mine to pretend it's leaf litter lol.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Setup looks good :) I like how you actually bothered to organize the decor. Other than putting in hides, I pretty much just throw fake plants on the cage floor and tell mine to pretend it's leaf litter lol.

Just trying to make her feel as comfy as possible I guess. I wish she was bigger already as I really want to build a nice larger vivarium for her but from what I understand it's good not to go too big on an enclosure. Hopefully she grows fast and I get an excuse to do some woodworking lol.

[d_virginiana]

Just trying to make her feel as comfy as possible I guess. I wish she was bigger already as I really want to build a nice larger vivarium for her but from what I understand it's good not to go too big on an enclosure. Hopefully she grows fast and I get an excuse to do some woodworking lol.

That's can be true for babies, but for adults the more space the better as long as you fill it up with decor that will make the feel secure. I have two smallish males in a 50 gal. long and they love using the whole tank. If she's a yearling, she'll probably keep growing till she's three years old but by the time they're 1 1/2 to 2 years they've usually outgrown the skittish, insecure baby phase in my experience.