Ontario red belly

[dakota11]

As a kid my friend and I use to catch garders then release them. The past couple weeks while doing yard work I noticed some huge ones like 2 or some over 3 feet in the maneur pile then this afternoon we captured a couple small ones what seemed to be strange is that these both have red bellies one is the black and yellow striped sort of and the other almost looks like rust color on the top and sides and I remember as a kid them having yellowish white or light orange bellies not bright red these also seem to have very round heavy type bodies and very tiny heads the length is under a foot and way wider than my 14-16 inch corn snakes. Im going to do some research here before deciding if to keep them for a while they are in my cornsnakes old enclosure for the night. but my camera wasnt working and wanted to get a pict. gonna charge battery tonight and take picts tomorrow. I cant believe you all do keep them as pets Is this because they are captive raised? btw I wont be picking up the bigger ones to see the color of the belly to compare lol. Off to look around the forum. Is the heating relative to the cornsnake? I'm thinking since this is Ontario and Corns are from the south these guys would want a bit lower temp?

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, dakota11 :)

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard. :)

Are you sure they aren't redbelly snakes (Storeria occipitomaculata)?

[infernalis]

Welcome.

They are red belly snakes (The description is spot on) do they look like these??

http://www.reformedsniper.net/sn/sm.jpg

http://www.herpnet.net/Iowa-Herpetology/images/stories/reptiles/snakes/Storeria_redbelly_snake/Storeria_RedBellySnakes_03_02.jpg

http://www.reformedsniper.net/snakes/red.jpg

[infernalis]

Please let them go, Red bellies do not fair well in captivity.

I released mine, they were misserable:(

[dakota11]

Well there goes my answer. The bottom two pictures look like them I didn't think red bellies were this far north. They are very round though The info on the net said they are more slender than the garter snake. Oh well I guess Ill have to stick to my store bought corns. Now Im wondering what the very large ones on the maneur pile are, got to be between 2 and a half to well over 3 feet and very wide around. Yes Dekay Brown Ill put them back to the pile of grubs and whatever else they are eating out there first thing tomorrow morning they are easy to handle I was going to release them today but thought I would try to feed them first and since they ate some outdoor creepy crawlers today I figured another day wouldn't hurt. Whats with the color differences these two could be the match of your two. Now how may I ask could I find a young garter snake instead of redbellies.