Hello

[MoJo]

I've been enjoying the forum for about a month now and thought I should finally introduce myself.

My love/obsession of snakes began when my then 7 year old son thought having a snake would be a great idea. I of course thought he and my husband were nuts but nevertheless we "tried out" having a ball python. Somehow from there we went to garters! Unfortunately our first garters met untimely deaths - one a tragic accident and another I think succumbed to an internal abscess. I have since branched out into corn snakes.

I still have 1.3 Eastern Blacknecks, a male red sided and two girls that were born to my now passed red sided girl.Their father is unknown. At least one of my Eastern Blackneck girls is gravid and I believe another is as well. I was quite surprised when I realized Tiger was gravid since I never witnessed the mating. She is more than twice Billy the Kid's size and he seemed to be hiding from her! I did witness him mating with Cheetah but that was only a few weeks ago.

Here's a photo of Tiger from a few years ago.

Joanna

[Cazador]

Joanna,

It's always a treat to be the first to welcome a new and interesting member to the forum. I'm glad you decided to join, and I'm sure you'll be a real force in our photo competitions. That's a great picture of Tiger! I admit to having a soft spot for blacknecks, and I hope to see many more pictures of yours. Thanks for sharing, and congratulations on "Billy's sneaky little adventure ;)." Maybe he wasn't hiding from her? Maybe he was seeking a little privacy from you :rolleyes:.

Rick

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard, Joanna.

That is indeed a great photo. :)

[Boots]

Let me be the second to welcome you to the forum and to say that is one nice snake you have there.

Jason

[GarterGuy]

Howdy and welcome to the forum Joanna. I love the eastern blacknecks, very nice pic!:D
Roy

[adamanteus]

Hi Joanna, and welcome to the forum. Nice photograph!

[Sputnik]

Welcome Joanna!

What a stunning snake! A picture of a Blackneck got us interested in garters originally. They are just absolutely gorgeous!

[MoJo]

Thanks for the warm welcome. My husband is a professional photographer and took that photo of Tiger! He is desperately trying to teach me photography though. I am sure you will be able to tell which photos are his and which are mine!

Joanna

[Snaky]

Welcome to the forum! Enjoy it here :)

That's a very nice picture of a beauty!

[drache]

Joanna - welcome here
good to meet you and your beautiful snake - great photo

[Thamnophis]

Hello Joanna, welcome here on this fantastic forum.
And Tiger is... WOW!!!

[mikm]

Hello Joanna ... you are making me regret parting with the e.blacknecks I once had. Very nice names you selected there as well :) ... What do they feed upon for you ??

marian

[MoJo]

Marian all my snakes take FT rodents - unscented. Tiger is a pig and will eat anything even when not gravid. Cheetah and Billy are a little pickier but I don't brumate and I think they mostly don't eat in winter or when looking for a mate! This year I didn't stress as much about them not eating and when they were ready they both started eating unscented mice again.

I am hoping that I will be able to get the babies onto pinky parts before selling them.

Joanna

[Cazador]

Hey Joanna,

You're making a lot of people squirm with how easily your blacknecks mate without brumation, eat anything, and look so fine ;). I hope you'll check out our new "classifieds section" (top right tab) when you're ready to sell. It's free :D. This is the first year it's been up and running, so I expect that it'll become quite a lot busier when this year's babies become available. I'm sure you won't have any trouble selling those beauties, though!. Cheers,

Rick

[MoJo]

Now won't I be embarrassed if Tiger is just obese and Cheetah doesn't end up being gravid! ;)

I have always been afraid to brumate and to be honest can't figure out how to do it easily! My snakes are still my pets even though they have become somewhat of an obsession!

I also learned the hard way how easily garters will mate in captivity. When we were inexperienced and dumb new snake owners we had a ribbon, a checkered garter and a red sided garter all in one viv. We came home one day and the baby sitter, all embarrassed, tells my husband that the kids had witnessed the snakes mating! Well over the next few days we witnessed the checkered garter and the red sided mating multiple times! She gave birth to 3 babies, 2 of whom survived. We did some research and found out that our female red sided had been living in a viv with some Easterns and red sided males. To this day I do not know which snake fathered my two little mutts! I suspect they are actually a mix of an Eastern and red sided since they are orange where a red sided should be more red! I have kept these two girls and have no intention of breeding or selling them.

Joanna