Long Time no post

[jamromhem]

lol I know someone with a ranch full of radix's :P

[ConcinusMan]

Four categories, in that case: #4. Breeding, not brumated.

The average lifespan is not relevant. If there's a difference, it would show up in the mortality rate (and potentially in clutch sizes and mortality rates among the offspring).

Now we just need a few hundred snakes of the same species and locality and offer them identical housing and identical care (apart from the brumation). I may have overlooked something else, but that's not really relevant at this point. These types of studies don't get done because the results aren't interesting to anyone except those who keep these snakes as pets.

It is my opinion that keeping garter snakes warm year round and in such a manner as to enhance their health and more importantly, growth rate, actually shortens their lives. I think this is why people are under the impression that 10 or 12 years old lifespan in captivity is normal and a pretty long life. I beg to differ.

Keeping a pair of concinnus as they would normally live in the wild, (4-6 months active season, brumating and inactive the rest of the year) the result was that they grew slowly, much slower than your average captive, but they lived beyond 17 years old.

This is of course completely unproven. I don't actually know that the way I kept them (some sort of winter rest or slow down nearly every year) had anything to do with their long lives. It's just a hypothesis.

It certainly doesn't seem to harm them to skip the winter rest. Checkereds are a species that doesn't brumate in the wild in the warmer parts of their range anyway.

[ssssnakeluvr]

I have had garters live over 10 years (wild caught as adults) without cooling

[ConcinusMan]

My point was the accelerated growth more so than the winter rest. I just think that the faster they reach maximum size, the shorter their lifespan. At least with some species. If they continue to grow throughout their lives, they don't have any growing left to do at 3 and half feet. Also, yours were already adults so obviously they weren't raised without winter rest their entire lives and they probably were not maxed out size-wise the entire 10+ years.