Hello From Florida

[Azurestefy]

I am new here, this is my first day, I have been looking at your posts for a while now but now that I have a concern about my pet and I am looking for other garters snakes I decided to join. I even went herping a couple of weeks back from reading some of the posts.

My family and I bought a garter snake, Midnight, last June. I do not know his age neither did the pet store. I didn't think to ask if he was CB or WC, but he is very tame now compared to when we first got him. He is a little pig and we feed him every five days about as much as he will eat. Leave him alone for a couple of days. He is set up on a ten gallon tank, with forest floor substrate, a hiding log, a bunch of small stones dispersed, an aquarium plant and few other miscellaneous decorations for him to rub around in.

He likes to hide in the substrate, made a network in it, and we always find him in there now. He has been doing this for a few weeks, the first time we didn't find him in his log we thought he had escaped!!!

He shed so fast after going in the blue (?) his eyes greyed over for like two days then cleared up one day and boom his old skin was next the water bowl.

One thing that concerns me about him is that he has a few vertebrae that make noise when his is slithering around in my hands, like half way down his back, I guess kinda closer to his tail end. Why does he crack like that? Its like the popping sounds of someones back but really quiet.

I am wondering how old he is and if we are feeding him often enough. We keep his terrarium around 47% humidity and 83F. He may be in there as low as 79F and as high as 88F I think. He has a basking spot. We have not seen any signs at all of parasites, mites or worms, and we do give him calcium supplements once a month (reptile powder). He eats Danios and chicken gizzards for the most part, but has had beef heart, kidneys, steak, toads, minnows, cod, and tilapia. He didn't like the cod too much and only had it twice.

Please reply with any comments and advice you may have!

~Stefy
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[guidofatherof5]

Nice to have you with us. Not sure all that organ meat is the way to go. Toads and minnows are a big no, no. Those two item can carry parasites and the minnows also contain thiaminase. The danios and tilapia are fine as long as the tilapia isn't a product of China. Have you tried night crawlers yet?
Here's a link to the forum care sheet. Feel free to ask all the questions you want.

Garter Snake Forum - Garter Caresheet

New member welcome - Garter Snake Gallery

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard.

[Mommy2many]

Welcome! We also had a garter (female) named Midnight. She was a WC and one of my biggest snakes. She liked to chew...