Shortheads in captivity?

[Zephyr]

Pittsburgh, PA 15217

Please don't ask.

I think I know. :P

[annulataarethebest]

I see that I'm a couple years late on defending myself on a public forum where I didn't know people were bashing the hell out of me.

I don't know if any of you know the laws of the state that I live in, but the shorthead garter snake didn't become a Protected Species until just recently (2 years maybe?), and there was no real thrill of feeding a snake to another snake, I was working with regal ringneck snakes at the time and they are snake eaters there is no way around it.

I no longer have any ringneck snakes, or any snake eaters for that matter, and I gave up on looking for snakes locally since there's nothing more than shorthead garters and northern browns around here. For the record, the blizzard cali king that was constricting the brown snake wouldn't take pinkies or even lizards, that brown snake was a last resort move. Also the majority of the pictures on my website in the Various Pics section aren't mine, and most of the pics are of snakes eating, snakes that some people have trouble getting to accept food in captivity. The pic of the shorthead garter snake being eaten by the regal ringneck snake was mine but like I said before, old picture, the shorthead wasn't protected here then.

So, years later, thanks for the bashing guys it was a good welcoming to a site I never saw before.

[RedSidedSPR]

That WAS a pretty fun read

[annulataarethebest]

Glad it entertained you, I don't understand why people were under the impression I was collecting this species and feeding it to my snakes cause it was fun and I liked killing off some rare snake. the shorthead garter snake will always be the most common snake in my area. Since I was 7 years old looking for snakes the shortheads were a guaranteed find.

I don't know if any of you ever kept shortheads but to respond to the original post before the thread became about me I kept a couple of them here and there through my childhood, they'll only eat worms, they won't switch to fish or mice. In some snakes the dorsal stripe is faded out, usually the snakes are brown with a yellow stripe, I've seen some with yellow stripes, the hypomelanistic specimen I found years ago was a good bit yellowish. It gave birth to 7 normal babies but was pretty skinny after that and didn't really recover. I didn't even know it was gravid.
The babies are about 4 inches long, sometimes 5, they're usually born in August-September. By the time spring rolls around babies born the previous year are usually about 7-8 inches. Unlike the eastern garter snake the shorthead doesn't bite, I've grabbed gravid females or snakes that ate recently and they'll open their mouth at you but won't strike. Probably like 7 years ago I found a shorthead that I assume was Erythristic, it was a red/orange color with a yellow stripe, wasn't even lucky enough to catch that one.
Last year I was considering taking natural pics of some shortheads and their pattern variations since I doubt there's too many pictures of them out there? Ended up deciding not to because of the protected status. Are they all but gone from New York?? Does anybody actually know? I would think that shortheads would just adapt to city life, because that's pretty much how they are in my area, you're gonna find shortheads in large numbers in people's backyards, never really in the woods though. There's one street in particular that's probably a mile long, with grass on side of the road, and a sewage stream on the other side. Boards along either side of that road were a goldmine for finding snakes when I was a little kid. And debris along this set of out of service rail road tracks.
I'm wondering if fish and game still does the population survey? I know I filled out a packet of info back in 2006 maybe, showing how many shorthead garter snakes were actually in my area.

[RedSidedSPR]

That doesn't excuse anything.

[guidofatherof5]

He's explained the situation that occurred over 2 years ago. I don't think he's looking to be excused but is looking for a fair shake on the forum.
It was a bad situation and I too was disturbed with the fact a garter snake was used as food but that was a long time ago.
Obviously people are going to be upset, this is a garter snake forum.

Would love to see some photos of your wild population.

[RedSidedSPR]

yeah, I know.

[Mommy2many]

Welcome to the forum.

[RedSidedSPR]

I reluctantly welcome you...

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Welcome to the forums.