Forum Newbie

[Cucuteni]

Hello All,

I'd like to make a home in my gardens for these creatures and enjoy their beauty and industry. Living in NW Washington, I can likely offer them a lifetime of slugs and other critters to feast on. I'm an animal/plant person by nature. Looking forward to interacting and learning with you all.

[GarterGuy]

Howdy and welcome to the forum. I've got all kinds of ideas and such for "garter snake gardening" if you're interested. It's something that I've been working on for a while......hopefully this spring I'll be getting 5.5 acres to turn into snake paradise.:D

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard!

[Cucuteni]

Thanks GarterGuy & Stefan.

I'd be very happy to get ideas on gardening with garters. Also interested in toads. I asked about being able to purchase them, but was told at a pet store that in WA, as elsewhere perhaps, natives can't be sold. Perhaps ordered from out of state.

Would be good to raise a set of both indoors each year to repopulate the neighborhood and the trade among friends.

[Snaky]

A welcome aboard from Belgium :) .

I don't have the answers to your questions, but I think that certainly some will be able to help you with it.

[Sid]

Welcome to the forum.

My best advise for fixing a garden that will attract snakes would be to set it up with plenty of hiding places. Some dense ground cover, plenty of mulch to burrow in and a water feature, etc. I have gardens here at the house and often find one kind of snke or the other. Somethong else that helps are rocks for accent or borders.

Sid

[abcat1993]

You'd think that our yard would be perfect for garters (we live in their range, have a pond full of frogs/toads, have plenty of places for it to hide), but we've never seen any snakes in our yard (or in our town for that matter)

[Cazador]

Hi Gary,
Thanks for the intro, and welcome to the forum. First, you've got to let us know what "Cucuteni" means. Second, You might consider starting with a low outdoor enclosure, perhaps 6' x 8' with walls that are partially buried. I understand that a lot of the early garter snake breeders could only achieve mating success with similar outdoor setups. Once you get a colony ready, you could remove the walls, but you'd have to bring them indoors for the winter if they're still in your enclosure. More later,
Rick

[Cucuteni]

Cucuteni is the name given to a culture living in the Romania/Ukraine area about 6000 yrs ago. They made some exquisite pottery and designs the artistic equal of say, Hopi or other SW tribes. And very similar in motif and naturalism.

Catching and relocating garters would be a good thing to learn about. I'll get some rocky areas built up for them here shortly after the snow melts again. Had been thinking of a small pond area, too.

Thanks for the ideas.

Gary

[Elliot]

Sounds good, let us know what happens!

[Cazador]

Gary,
Thanks for the Cucuteni explanation. Soooo, here are my thoughts. In general, I think it's a really bad idea to capture wild garters, keep them in captivity for an extended period, and then return them to the wild. Some garters thrive in captivity, while others succomb to side-effects of stress from confinement.

A common scenario is that wild snakes thrive in the wild with low levels of parasites because free living allows them to escape reinfestation and cope with or eliminate a portion of their parasitic load. Captivity increases their stress levels and weakens their immune system. Moreover, snakes can't escape from parasites/pathogens that are confined with them in their enclosures, so their health declines over time. Altered diet, abnormal smells, different temperature/lighting regimes, etc. also contribute to their stress levels.

Again, some snakes thrive in captivity, but others don't. Releasing weakened or sick snakes back into their environment can be flirting with danger. It can be like releasing a heat seeking missile back into the wild because these snakes will encounter other wild snakes, and potentially hibernate/brumate in communal dens with them. If a weakened snake happens to enter a den with pneumonia, cryptosporidia, an abundance of communicable parasites, etc. it can spell the end for an entire colony in your area. It's a real danger that has been documented within lizard populations.

Your idea seems to soften the blow, though, since their confinement wouldn't be as dramatic. I'm not endorsing your idea, but I think it has merit. If you chose to overwinter them (particularily newborns) in a protected environment, their overwinter survival might increase. Then they could be released into your outdoor enclosure where the stress levels would hopefully be somewhat less. Before I'd release any snake back into the environment, though, I'd want to do as much as possible to ensure it isn't carrying a dangerous parasitic/pathogenic load, including providing appropriate medication. Anyway, a "large" outdoor enclosure with plenty of hiding places for individual snakes, shade, water, food, and so on would act as a proving ground for your idea instead of taking a chance with the health of wild snakes in your area. Of course, you'll want to check the laws in Washington about releasing captive animals and you'll essentially be responsible for the safety of all the snakes that yours might come into contact with (at least from an integrity point-of-view). This is why I wouldn't ever encourage housing and releasing wild-caught snakes. These are just my two cents. Spend them wisely ;).
Rick

P.S. If you choose to proceed, please become as educated as possible about keeping garter snake and maintaining their welfare by reading as much as possible. Look in the top left corner of the homepage (http://www.thamnophis.com/) for some suggested reading. Either way, it would be fun to have an outdoor enclosure as long as cats couldn't get in there.

[ssssnakeluvr]

a lot of states don't allow captive animals to be released back to the wild....

[Cucuteni]

Thanks for your replies. They were the type of input I need. I actually would be better served by letting the populations rise on their own through good care of the environment. Are catching the occasional garter and relocation considered to be alright?

[Cazador]

Sure. I wonder if you were to put them near your house and provide them worms if they would eventually come looking for handouts?

[Thamnophis]

Welcome here, Cucuteni ;)