Happy owner from Ontario

[Asyne]

Hi here,

First, sorry if my english is bad, I'm french and not very comfortable with English... But I'll try anyway!

I live in french Ontario, I'm student and have 25 years. I have garter snakes for a long time ago (8 years... ok, maybe not so long in fact ). The first time, i caught two snakes : a male (named Juppé in French) and a female (Sarkotte) the same day, but the male was injured and died a few month later. The female is died two years ago, maybe old age, when I caught a little female (Alliote) to keep her company. Unfortunately, the little female (maybe one year aged) escaped last summer and I never found her.

Sarkotte had a very good character, loved to curl up under my sweater and wasn't wild at all. She spent all her time with our family, on our table, chairs and others, never frightned, even by my cat who were afraid by her ^^

And this summer, I saw a big and wonderful female on my porch. She was sunbathing. I caught her, named her "DSK" and take her in a big terrarium, but she was very wild. I'll try to tame her, but never can take her in my hand without getting bitten. So I decided to release her, thinking she will be more happy outside. But in august, she has become much more aggressive. You can see her in theses pictures :

Before her molt :
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

And after (she ate a lot... never see that Oo)
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

And one morning, I had a very nice surprise: in the terrarium, there wasn't only a snake, but 21. DSK was a big mum who gave birth to twenty little babies. They were very cute. Today, unfortunately, DSK is dead. She swallowed a piece of wood with her worms and couldn't spit it. My vet think she has make a intestinal obstruction... But her babies are always alive. Just one died because he won't eat, too small and fragile, and I stuffed two others who are alive now and as big as others. Everybody is big and very beautiful. Now they hibernate for winter and I hope they will still alive next spring.

I don't know if I'll have to release them or if I'll keep them in spring. It wasn't in my plans (or in my dream ^^) to have 19 snakes. But I'll see after winter.

Here are some pictures of my dear babies :
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...59335148_n.jpg (this is Arsenic, the bigger female, more pale than others and as wild as her mother... very nice one)
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...25561672_n.jpg (picture taken a few days ago, before hibernation)
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...50344094_n.jpg (this is Belladone, the smaller male, who has stole his worm to Arsenic... maybe a bit pretentious ^^)
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...88569471_n.jpg (and on this picture, you can see a lot of babies, with Arsenic in the middle, more pale than her brothers and sisters)

That's it for today!

A few days ago, I started looking for breeders who may be interest by trade and I found the Jeff Benfer who advised me to contact and join you. So I come on this forum to share my experience if I can, and learn a bit to give the best to my babies.

So thanks for this forum and have a good evening everybody

Asyne

[infernalis]

[guidofatherof5]

You English is just fine and better then many Americans.
Nice to have you on the forum. Jeff is a good person to work with.
Here's a link to the forum caresheet:Garter Snake Care Sheet - Caresheets

Might be wise to get them off any frogs or toads. They carry a heavy parisite load.

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard.

[chris-uk]

Welcome to the forum.

If the babies were born this summer aren't they young for brumating? Have a read of some of fhe information on here about brumation, and make sure you get the conditions right if you do decide to brumate them. They don't need it, and I don't have experience of brumation to say whether it is actually a bad thing in this case.

[guidofatherof5]

I never brumate babies. I give them that time to grow and mature.

[katach]

Bienvenue dans la familledu forum! Merci de partagervos serpentsmerveilleux avecnous! Ce sontde beaux bébésque vous avez là.

(Welcome to the forum family! Thank you for sharing your wonderful snakes with us! Those are beautiful babies you have there.)

[Light of Dae]

Welcome If you are looking to rehome any babies please let me know, I'd like one <3 Not sure how much it would cost to fly them from Ont to Alberta, but shouldn't be too bad... I might even want two lol

[Asyne]

Thanks a lot for your welcome and thanks too for your link, Steve : it will be very helpful!

Snakes are escape artists, and especially garters because they are very curious

I found this sentence very funny: Sarkotte was always found outside of her terrarium!
But I bought another terrarium for my babies, so no more fugitives ^^

I stopped to give them frogs and toads because I read somewhere they are carriers of parasites. So just worms purchased in pet shop or fishing shop and sometimes, harvested in my yard and washed before they are given to my babies.

Chris-UK, about brumation, I thought that in nature, they were turn into brumation naturally, so when their natural behavior has been to slow their activities and spent more time in their hiding, I just lowered the temperature of their room and gave them no more food (they ate very less anyway in the past three weeks). Don't know if it's a good idea... I tried to do the best for them, and the most natural although they are in captivity.

I'm not looking to rehome them immediatly (due to brumation), but in spring, I'm interested by exchange for an opening of blood. But, before I would like to learn how to start a breeding and make sure I can welcome new babies in the best conditions. Do you know where I can find the price for shipping in Alberta and possible ways of shipping?

Thanks for your advice and comments
Good evening!

[chris-uk]

Brumation is something that isn't essential for captive snakes unless you're looking to breed them in the Spring, so for babies its like Steve says not brumating gives them more growing time.
There's a link in another thread (the "I saw Scott Felzer.... " thread) where there was a few comments about shipping to/from Canada, might be useful to take a look.