Critique our think

[Pitchfire]

Background first. My uncle taught me about snakes when I was 7 in Az. He bet me a California Kingsnake and a sidexside shotgun that I wouldn't eat his parrots peppers and I won 'em. I grew up flipping boards all over with a father in the Air Force. So from Hawaiian Blind Snakes to rattlers, gopher snakes and of course garters aplenty, I always had my hands full.

Fast forward 30 years and now my daughter wants a snake here in Southeast Alaska. So although we have a 15 gallon tank for starters and a 60 watt che heater etc... we would like to get the most suitable species for the environment and all that it offers. So species of the Northwest particularly interest us particularly Sirtalis (fitchi, parietalis, pickeringii, & concinnus) and Elegans vagrans. We read on the snakes of B.C. website that Elegans Vagrans, the wandering garter, has the most varied diet in the wild, a mild toxin, and constrictor like tendencies. So we have favored the Wandering, but are open to constructive criticism regarding our logic.

We would very much like to feed a varied diet (although we realize it may be difficult or impossible) of local foods (worms, slugs, newts, insects, fish, krill etc...). So we want all the chance we can get that it will work.

There has been a now lost specimen collected not too incredibly far from here, (species of garter undetermined). It would be fun to find the first proven claim to a snake in Alaska! 50 miles upriver from here... My guess in the snake was a valley or wandering given the B.C. range maps. I would like to have a distant cousin to meet them if I ever succeeded.

So we have very high humidity and moderate temps like Seattle (never goes below 0degF here and rarely out of the 70's on the high side). Of course inside the temperature is somewhat irrelevant though the humidity and daylight hours will be more of a factor.

Thoughts?

[Selkielass]

Go with whatever you can catch or buy locally ...
or
Look around and order a snake you like the look and temperament of. ( local is very luck dependant.)

[guidofatherof5]

Welcome to the forum.
Here's a link to the forum care sheet.
Any additional info. you can give us about the unknown garter species found?
Garter Snake Forum - Garter Caresheet

[Pitchfire]

I don't know about the "unknown" found except what the site listed (was held in the museum's collection supposedly and subsequently lost). The articles I have read state that nobody up there on the Canada side remembers seeing any, but then how many people as a percentage ever know what species are around them? The town only has 400 residents. They are certainly there, it's just a matter of finding them. Going up the river you go from 80+" of rain a year to <11" a year and a very different climate. I haven't asked around but I'm going to ask somebody this week that might know about them.

[katach]

Welcome to the forum family! Worms, slugs, and fish from the safe list in our caresheet are all great food options. I would be very careful with newts as some of them produce a neurotoxin when threatened such as the rough skinned newt we have here in WA. Garter snakes will not eat insects as they cannot digest the exoskeletons. Frogs are a naturally occurring food in the wild, but can carry a heavy parasite load. You may want to also consider frozen and then thawed pinkie mice. There is a company in CA that delivers to Alaska, but I think they charge extra for it. Good luck on your garter search. I may be getting some NW (T. ordinoides) babies soon from one of my females if you can't find one more locally. I'm not sure how the shipping would work from here to there though.

[Pitchfire]

Thanks, hopefully we have a source nailed down. Still have to figure out shipping although my uncle has done so to Anchorage and I can easily get something down from there on the mail plane that comes every morning.

[ssssnakeluvr]

wanderings are an excellent choice. they will eat a large varied diet. I have had them eat lizards! they will do fine with worms, fish, and work them on to pinkies as they get bigger. I feed mine tilapia filets... chop it into pieces the size of their head and put them on a sour cream dish lid and let them chow down. wanderings in the wild will eat mice. their saliva has a tranquilizing effect on mice (however I wouldn't feed live as they can bite and injure the garter). they don't actually constrict, but rather throw a coil or 2 around the mouse to hold it still while it is eating. I have witnessed this several times with my snakes. it's not real common tho.

[gregmonsta]

Greetings