Hello! I'm so glad other people are as crazy about garters as I am

[Artemis deOrdinoides]

Just to introduce myself, my name is Claire and I live in lovely Portland, Oregon and have three T. ordinoides:

Artemis, WC adult female, 18" long, milk chocolate ground color, cream colored belly, dark brown checkering, three yellow stripes, few red/orange spots. She is my first snake, and she's awesome! Never bitten or musked, calm and easy to handle, eats worms, fish, and pinkies from my hand.

Poseidon, small WC male (too jumpy to measure) slate grey ground color, lapis blue belly and single dorsal stripe, no spots. My avatar picture. Eats worms but doesn't like to be watched, haha. I didn't intend to keep two WC snakes, but he was too pretty to let go!

Baby Snake, captive-born offspring of Artemis, who was captured gravid this spring. Born July 29th of this year. I gave away all her littermates, but my boyfriend kept Baby because she was weak and not eating yet and didn't want her to die on anyone else (he named her, LOL). It took two weeks but now she eats like a champ! Nearly patternless chocolate brown, faint orange stripe.

I'm super bummed that the new ODFW rules appear to prohibit breeding all captive native wildlife, (without a permit that I have zero chance of getting) so I can't legally breed Artemis and Poseidon. They could make pretty ones if they had his color and her strong crisp markings. Oh well. If I'm still excited about the idea next year, I'll get some non-native snakes to play with. Eastern Blacknecks tickle my fancy...

Anyway I'm so happy to find people on the internet who love garters too. I've lurked for months but never made an account until now. Hopefully I can participate in many discussions instead of just lurking!

[infernalis]

[guidofatherof5]

Welcome. T. ordinoides - Northwestern garter, my second favorite Thamnophis. Awesome snakes. Here's a link to the forum care sheet.
Garter Snake Forum - Garter Caresheet

[ScimitarX]

How fun, another Claire Welcome!

[indigoman]

Welcome to the forum!

[Albert Clark]

Hello! Welcome to the club. Can't wait to see some pics of your colony.

[Artemis deOrdinoides]

Not quite sure how to make pics show up... but here goes nothing. If they show up, here are my snakes: normal female Artemis, anery one-stripe male Poseidon, and patternless normal female Babysnake.

[indigoman]

Welcome to the forum!

[Albert Clark]

Amazing colony you have there! Congrats and thanks.