Taken from a Mason Lab (Oregon State University) web page is this:

"The red-sided garter snake shows strong patterns of seasonality, which are reflected in their behavior and circulating levels of sex and stress hormones. This species serves as a model dissociated breeder, meaning that their maximal mating behavior is uncoupled from gametogenesis and maximal sex steroid production".

I know of some people who dissociate when they have a sexual interest, but any season will do. Most of them end up thrice divorced with thousands of dollars of child support per month They are only capable of logical thinking AFTER the damage is done. Once they have a new sexual interest, the logic and what they have learned goes right out the window, but I digress.

Also taken from the web page:

"We have recently discovered that the Harderian gland (HG), the largest cephalic gland in garter snakes, plays a critical role in the transfer of chemical signals (female pheromones, feeding cues) to the chemosensory epithelium of the vomeronasal organ (VNO). Male garter snakes who have had their HGs removed fail to court females and exhibit no response to female pheromone."

Sexual behavior and appetite? Sounds like some backwards methamphetamine affect. While mammilian brains respond to the release of certain hormones that drive mood and behavior (such as dopamine, seretonin, norepinephrine) apparently, in garter snakes, sexually attracting hormones do no work without a "middle man" (Harderian gland) to pass on the message to the receiver (vomeronasal organ)

Facinating. You can effectively render a male garter snake asexual (not sexually attracted to any other snake of any sex) by taking out a tiny gland in their head!

It's like I was saying about brumating. Some garters must go through it in order to attract or be attracted. This doesn't mean they aren't capable of reproduction, but without attraction, however brief it may be, reproduction isn't going to happen without artificial laboratory interference. Perhaps this research and subject matter might apply to the issue of the occasional concinnus eating concinnus? Perhaps captive selective breeding alters more than what we can see with the naked eye?

I think it's very important to keep records. If possible, tracing entire linage from sire and dam, all the way back to the wild,(exact location of each parent) and taking note of EVERYTHING when it comes to feeding, breeding, etc. Even if the record reveals a fracture or two of the law, it could help researchers and garter snake breeders in the future. I've been saying it all along, if you're going to pay top dollar for a snake, shouldn't we have a system of linage like dogs do?

Fascinating stuff. I'm going to email some of the researchers and see if they can't reveal a bit more about their findings.

http://masonlab.science.oregonstate.edu/