shoot...

[adamanteus]

if you gave them all to people who promised not to breed they would be ok

People lie. It's hard, because we are Garter enthusiasts, but some people out there are mouse enthusiasts and would read our forum with horror!
King Snakes need a varied diet too, so do 'Pac Man' frogs... it's the better, safer, more sensible option. Otherwise, one day, all garters will be the same, cross-bred, coffee coloured, bland......

[Snake lover 3-25]

i would just NEVER have the heart to do it i guess.......... but maybe that's because i've only ever had a few and............. ................

[adamanteus]

Like I say, it's hard. But if we, as Thamnophis.com, don't endeavour to keep things pure, who will?
There are people 'out there' doing this kind of thing deliberately.

[Stefan-A]

Indeed. Even worse is when people do it unknowingly and just pass them on as just "garter snakes". And then one of us comes along and thinks he or she can ID it.. It wouldn't matter so much if people didn't care what kind of garters they keep, but many of us do.

I just don't trust people enough to believe that they can be trusted to keep hybrids separate from the rest. Especially garters, since they seem to be especially difficult to identify as hybrids. Jungle corns are easy by comparison.

[adamanteus]

Stefan is right. Mistakes carry consequences, no matter how difficult that may be. We have a responsibility to rectify our mistakes. Trusting it will just go away isn't the way to go.

[jeanette]

what your looking for is someone who enjoys the snakes but really isnt intending to breed them, im not really interested in breeding as a whole, having seen other snakes breed frogs breed lizards breed etc etc............ Garters are ive noticed quite interesting breeders so i have a pair that i hope to eventually get one clutch from, and that will be the end of my garter breeding fascination.
i agree that you will have to be careful who you rehome these snakes to, but with such a large SERIOUS garter community it shouldnt be too hard to find people that will home them and ensure that they are not bred on.

[garterchick]

ok, here they are

[adamanteus]

what your looking for is someone who enjoys the snakes but really isnt intending to breed them.

That's fine... but five years down the line, when they've 'advanced' to Creamsicle Corns etc. They would just pass the Garters on to someone else who doesn't give a damn. That's what happens, and all the good intentions in the World won't change it.

[Snake lover 3-25]

:-(

[Zephyr]

Wow, those are actually pretty.