this is a email thread i had with scott felzer yesterday:

.ExternalClass .EC_hmmessage P{padding:0px;}.ExternalClass body.EC_hmmessage{font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma;}hi scott,

i'm hoping you can help me figure something out. i own an adult female flame garter snake and a young adult male red-sided garter.
i lost the male flame during brumation and the female red-sided shortly after, so in my infinite wisdom i decided to house the two surviving snakes together. i did this in the middle of april and unexpected breeding took place immediately. two weeks ago, about 45 days after the union, i was blessed with 16 offspring, 2 of which died so far. at first i made the assumption that the little red-sided boy is the daddy, but the more i think about it the less sure i am. is it even possible that the red-sided fathered the brood given the time line or did this pregnancy result from retained sperm from the male flame (breeding did take place in the fall)? either way, the young'ns are stunning, many of them high red, and are sure to bring me much joy.
i'm posing the question to you because you're without a doubt the authority on everything concerning the breeding of garters and i hope you can shed some light on the issue.
thank you for your time

tina sackett



he replied:


.ExternalClass .EC_hmmessage P{padding-right:0px;padding-left:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px;}.ExternalClass BODY.EC_hmmessage{font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma;}
Tina,

Can you send me pics of the parents and babies? I can try and help you pinpoint which fathered the brood (hopefully).

Scott


to which i said:

i'll try to get some decent pictures tonight of mama and the red-sided boy, and maybe of some of the babies. unfortunately i have none of the male flame, at least not any good ones. thanks for your help

tina

so i sent him these pictures:

IMG_0001.JPG (115.1 KB), IMG_0002_...JPG (203.4 KB), IMG_0002_...JPG (155.0 KB), IMG_0006_...JPG (111.1 KB), IMG_0004.JPG (88.9 KB)


together with this explanation:

ok, here they are. the red-sided boy is kind of self explanatory as is "big red", the female flame. the male flame, r.i.p., is the one with the white stripe down his back. it's hard to capture the babies up close, i did the best i could.
again, thank you for giving this a try

tina


and this was his immidiate response:

Tina,

The babies are pure flames, there is no red sided influence in them whatsoever. Would you be interested in selling/trading any of the babies? If so, I would be interested in most all, depending on if you are going to keep any for yourself. Let me know and congrats on a nice brood! Where did you get the flames (and red sideds from) if you don't mind me asking?

Scott

so guess what: i'm happy!

i know that some of you are going to be sceptical but scott's opinion is good enough for me.