Just caught today

[brain]

the weather is holding in the 60's today rain coming again Saturday. But while I was out puttin down grass sed this cutie tried to snaek past me. I seen her out of the corner of my eye ... finished what i was doing a got my pet container. enjoy

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[guidofatherof5]

Great looking snake.
Stop calling HIM cutie:D

[Hornets23]

Sweet...very nice looking.

[zooplan]

Nice male with an impressive thick eyeline,
even for ´ordinoides.

[brain]

Not a Her a HIM L. Oh well I keep “her” if “she” will eat.
Yea Udo, I though the same about the black markings along side of the eye. And I do like the light orange ticking.

[ConcinusMan]

And I do like the light orange ticking.

I see that a lot on snakes around here. The challenge is finding one with solid colored orange or red stripes. I just love those but so hard to find. Not too common, at least not around here.

I found these two lookers a few days ago. Nice enough to give them a try and see if they eat and do well in captivity. If not, back they go.:cool: There's nothing as sweet as when they are lookers AND adapt and eat well. When they do, they tend to be very tame, sweet, and even comical pets full of character. I just love them.

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These two would have made a good pair but they're both female. I hope they do well. If they do, I will deworm them and send them along to a forum member or two that have been waiting patiently to get some of these. They know they are.;)

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[ConcinusMan]

Of course you all know Miss Piggy. She's so darn neato, in both looks and personality that I am extremely attached to her. Any offers for her would have to be quite high for me to give her up and even then, I don't know. There's a lot of northwesterns around here but she's one in 10 million special to me. She was tame the minute I picked her up. No fussing, no musking.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/794/dscn3434large.jpg

[kibakiba]

The one at the top looks like Snakey with a brown background. The belly is exactly the same as his, too. :D

[d_virginiana]

You guys are so lucky! We have hardly any garters around here just wandering around.. Of course, we have a TON of kingsnakes, so it's an okay trade-off but still... Very nice snakes, especially the red-striped ones!

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, go to the right spots and there's literally hundreds of northwesterns slithering around on any sunny morning. Lots of different colors and patterns. If you find a place where they are that has boards or tin lying around, you can flip and find dozens of them. At least 90% of them are very small snakes, 6-18 inches.

Not only that, go just about any place near a permanent body of water and some amphibians and good habitat, and you'll find plenty of concinnus' around. Now those are much bigger of course and not as variable as the northwesterns. Not uncommon for me to take a walk by a creek and spot 3 footers. I guess I am kinda lucky. All I have to do is find appropriate habitat on a sunny morning and I'm guaranteed to find plenty of garter snakes.

Can't wait to see what I'm going to find near Ft. Lewis, WA next month.;)

I'll also be herping Sparks/Reno NV area near the end of this month, and Champoeg State Park (Oregon) in June. Plenty of rubber boas and alligator lizards at the park I hear.

[brain]

Not too common, at least not around here. There's nothing as sweet as when they are lookers AND adapt and eat well.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/1049/nw002large.jpg



I caught one just like this last year but wouldn't eat. They seem to be picky in captivity. I let it go for that reason.

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah it's been hit and miss. I've been catching and trying them out periodically but it sure doesn't work out very often. When it does though, they turn out to be really charming snakes that eat with gusto. These two have decent body mass so I have a few weeks to get them eating. If they don't eat after about 3 weeks I'll take them back and release them where I found them.

[brain]

I was going to the wood shed for a piece of cedar and almost stepped on this girl :eek:

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I'm thinkin gravid ... i haven't weighted her but the length os about 18-20 inches and about 3/4" around.
Shes calming down now and had abath along with a good drink of water.

[guidofatherof5]

Beautiful girl.

[kibakiba]

Wow, she's the perfect shade of blue. I'm in love!

[ConcinusMan]

Gorgeous Puget. Very nice! Awesome contrast and just little pinpoints of red. I like it!

And just for the benefit of other readers that might not be clued in, this is a Puget Sound Garter Snake. Thamnophis sirtalis pickeringi. ;)

A subspecies of "common garter snake". This subspecies is native only to the Puget Sound region of WA State and coastal British Columbia, Canada.:)

Doesn't matter to me what color phase this subspecies comes as, they are all darn pretty snakes!

[katach]

Very pretty!

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, what she said. ^^^

[brain]

Yea, I was planning on a trip Anacortes this weekend around Lake Eire and Pass lake maybe do some kayaking and herping. However, she was “right at my back door to boot”. Sorry Steve I stole that :o
If she does not eat in a few days out, she goes back under the woodshed.
And yes very little red spots. At first I thought it was one of my other snakes, but nope. Made my day :eek:

[ConcinusMan]

A few days? C'mon Michael. You underestimate them. She could easily go a month. If you really want her, 4 weeks chance to eat isn't too long. It's up to you of course and there's always next year!

Made my day too. By far one of the best WC I've seen in weeks. Not to discredit some very fine northwesterns that have been posted lately, but I'm a sucker for certain T. sirtalis' and that's a darn fine one.

I've "been there, done that" on lots of very photogenic WC snakes. If all that happens is a few weeks in captivity, and lots of photos, then that is a gift in itself and good enough!:D

Thanks for the effort and sharing! I know what it takes and it is appreciated.

[RedSidedSPR]

That is a beautiful snake... "and right out your door to boot.":D

[brain]

Well I say days ... but yea it might be a week or two. Considering her girth.

[RedSidedSPR]

Hope she eats for you. Shes gorgeous.

[brain]

So new photos this morning. I hope you enjoy. That is a small viv for her I know but until things settle and there is no mites, she can be all right there.

To give you a perspective that viv is 12 cubed, the dowel in there is 7/8” x 4”. Maybe tomorrow I will weight her.

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[guidofatherof5]

She had/has mites?
She's beautiful.

[katach]

She is very pretty!

[ConcinusMan]

And fat!

[Mommy2many]

Is she really that blue color? She is awesome! Quite a striking snake.

[katach]

Her belly looks like she might be getting ready to shed.

[ConcinusMan]

Is she really that blue color?

I would think so. she is a puget after all.

[brain]

She had/has mites?
She's beautiful.

Thanks Steve
No mites’ visible, but as a precaution I Provent-a-mite some Aspen as soon as I had her secured. I let that off gas about an hour then moved her to where she is now.
I’m not going thru the mite phase again. ;)

[brain]

Is she really that blue color? She is awesome! Quite a striking snake.
Yes, from her head to tail the blue gets more predominate. Not to the point of the black as my other four.
This is the second snake I have caught in my back yard (½ acre with pond) in the past two years. In addition, I am noticing the coloring difference. This adult you can barely see the red where as the little scrub I caught last Oct 2010 has the red spots more predominate.


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Her belly looks like she might be getting ready to shed.
Ready to shed, hum I’ll watch for that. When I caught her, she had a light gray coloration looking as though she was going to shed. However when she was placed in her viv she went straight to the water dish and washed off that old road dust and you see the colors much clearer.

[ConcinusMan]

That's it. I just gotta ask Dr. Robert Mason if he would be willing to compare DNA samples from our SW WA laterally striped concinnus' and those red phase pugets. The resemblance is uncanny.

[brain]

So I’m up this morning with my coffee and thought I would check on my animals. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but 10 tiny little scrubs and 1 worn out mom.:eek::eek:

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//733/medium/20110906_7.JPG


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Now the trick is feeding these hungry mouths. Yea worms and pinkie parts and monitoring.

[guidofatherof5]

Congrats.
Those are some big babies.

[brain]

TY :cool:
Just weighted three and the average weight in 3 grams. Time 10 mom was carrying a good bit of extra weight.

See how drawn she looks at the lower end of her body. Her belly scales are folded up over her. Now tahs was a skin stretcher ;)

[RedSidedSPR]

Sweet!!!! That's awesome!

[Starling96]

There cute!
Do you plan to release them?

[katach]

That is awesome! Congrats!! if you are selling let me know we may want a male for our girls. Some time down the road though, not right away.

[d_virginiana]

Nice! That's always a good surprise :)

[Starling96]

That is awesome! Congrats!! if you are selling let me know we may want a male for our girls. Some time down the road though, not right away.

Sounds like your going to have some cool breeding plans :D

[katach]

Yeah. I want to breed both our pugets, maybe not at the same time. I have a project in the works with my red stripe NW Blade and Chantel's red stripe Snakey. Hoping to at least get one or two reds out of it. So after that, I want to get the pugets going.

[Starling96]

yea that would be sweet!