General characterization of subspecies attitudes

[Darlo]

Interesting observations regarding infernalis; I can only comment as I have found with mine - they are a little flighty (female more than the male), but I've never been bitten or struck at. They musked a little as babies.

The only one of mine to inflict bites and display noticeable defensive behaviour was my albino marcianus. It used to really flatten it's head and produce really long and slow tongue flicks

[Invisible Snake]

*I'm new to these 2 species/subspecies of garter snakes and currently working with mostly babies/juveniles, these are my personal observations*

Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis and Thamnophis cyrtopsis ocellatus are very similar in attitudes, both are defensive and don't like to be handled and won't hesitate to strike at something or someone they find threatening. My Ocellatus prefer to sleep under the substrate during the day and are very active when it gets dark. My Infernalis spends most of their time hidden either in a hide or under the substrate, they are very timid and don't like to be handled. Ocellatus are flighty, but will calm down after being held for a couple of minutes. Both prefer to eat live fish (I haven't tried worms yet) and will only eat heavily scented pinkies.

When threatened my infernalis will flatten its head and keep its body relatively low to the ground ready to strike. When my Ocellatus feels threatened/cornered they will rise up (like standing up, but it's body is still curled up) and puff up their bodies to appear bigger than they really are and won't hesitate to strike. I noticed these behaviors while trying to feed them unscented pinkies, they didn't recognize it as food and felt threatened.

I forgot to mention that the infernalis babies musk a lot, but grow out of that after regular handling and I've never been musked by the ocellatus.