I wanted to share some photos of my snake as he changes and grows. He still seems so small to me, but he's almost eight inches long now. He was much shorter when I adopted him four months ago. Still, he seems so tiny compared to all of the wild garters I've caught and handled over the years. I remember catching garters that were three feet long or more back when I was little.

I say Cuddles is a he, but in reality I have no idea what gender he is. I just want him to be male at this point. I probably won't be able to tell until he is older. Five/six months is probably too young to tell those sorts of things.

Cuddles is so polite and so sweet - at least compared to the garters that I've caught wild. He's used me as his own personal bathroom a few times, but otherwise he's only musked me three times (once he musked our table in our dorm as well. the smell was awful!). He's never bitten me - never even tried. In fact, he likes to curl up around my fingers and refuse to let go. He even squeezes them sometimes. I try to socialize him as much as I can because of my brothers. If he bit one of them my mom would force me to get rid of him.

Sometimes I take him out and let him explore my bed. Usually he just curls up next to me. A few times he's tried to hide in my pocket. Other times he sits in my lap and watches me. Of course, if my cell phone us laying on my bed that's the first thing he goes to. I'm not sure why. He likes my camera too. At the moment he has decided that my shorts are the perfect place to hide.

When I first got him I never noticed this, but his underside is covered with these red splotches. Eventually I did notice them, and I had no idea what they were. With his first shed they seem to have gotten a bit more noticeable. They're rusty red. The red stripe on his back has also gotten a bit brighter.SAM_1536.jpgSAM_1555.jpg

I love my snake. Even if he is a picky eater, he's wonderful.