Hi!

[Izzie]

Hi! Some of my very first pets were easter garters and I loved them. When I was five I built elaborate planted vivariums for them and fed them earthworms and guppies. My parents always had me release them after a few weeks. Now I find myself working for an exotic animal specialty veterinary hospital and my interest in snakes has been renewed. I've been working in veterinary practices since I was in high school, but never with reptiles. I did get to work with some huge rock pythons and other snakes at the zoo as a volunteer and have owned other herps over the years. My favorite snakes remain garters because they are so active and diurnal I think they make much more interesting pets than the boas and pythons. It's easier to reproduce their natural environment because they are native. I've also never had one try to bite me and I handled dozens of wild garters when I was a girl. So that's what brings me here. Thanks for having me.

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard. :)

[infernalis]

http://www.thamfriends.com/mat.jpg

Enjoy the forums. Lots of great folks here. ;)

[guidofatherof5]

Garters are special. Nice to have you with us.

[drache]

welcome to the forum

[gregmonsta]

Greetings :D

[Mommy2many]

Welcome to the forum!

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, Izzie :)

[bkhuff1s]

Hello, watch out Garters tend to start by taking over a shelf, then the book case, then your whole living space, and finally they take your life...

[guidofatherof5]

Hello, watch out Garters tend to start by taking over a shelf, then the book case, then your whole living space, and finally they take your life...

This is all good.:D

[bkhuff1s]

Agreed :)

[Hollis_Steed]

Welcome to the forum from Utah! Lovin' the garters!

[ConcinusMan]

Oh shoot Izzy, you're hooked. There's no hope for you now. I know. Been there. Tried lots of snakes. I could have ten dozen other snakes and I am not content. I must have GARTER snakes or I'm not happy.

Oregon has some especially great garter snakes, including, but not limited to, Oregon Red-spotted garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis concinnus)

Where are you in Oregon? East side, west side, northwest, southern?

[Izzie]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I'm in PDX! I get out to the wilderness pretty often: Sauvie Island, the Gorge, Mt. Hood, etc but I don't see too many garters any more.

This puts me in mind of a sad story: In Vancouver, WA when I was in my early teens my brother and I lifted a plywood board in a vacant lot and I grabbed a handful of garters (11 of them!). We kept them for a few weeks and had great fun watching them - then returned them to the lot. That winter the lot was bulldozed and I never saw garters in my neighborhood again - when before they had been plentiful. This was followed by an an explosion in the spider population (dozens of them moving in waves through the grass sometimes). I can only assume the young garters had been eating the spiders.