Hello!!

[Stefan-A]

Garters can be pretty sensitive. Many of them are wildcaught, others are fed improperly or kept improperly. The fact that they are generalists is often misunderstood and that can sometimes lead to people feeding them exclusively with only one type of food, which can in certain cases cause problems in the long run. But the things that have happened to some of our members, could just as well have happened to people with animals from another group of species.

I suppose garters can be a bit tricky, but only because it's easier to do things wrong without realizing it. For example, corns have a much simpler diet. They feed exclusively on animals that provide complete meals, but garters will eat anything from leeches to rodents, both of which might be harmful if it's the only type of food that's offered.

[drache]

hi Nicole
welcome from Brooklyn, NY
nice to have you here

[Sid]

Nicole, to answer on the "escape" concern. All snakes are great escape artist. On my smaller specimens, I house these in 10 gallon aquariums with plastic reptile tops. These are fairly good but tend to be a little flexible, so I keep a weight on them located between the latches. I make my own tops for the larger tanks from 3/8 to 1/2" plywood. I use the clip type latches on them at the front and hinge across the back using duct tape. Have not had any escapes (thank goodness).

[NFS07]

Thanks for all the replies. Is there a list out there of fish that are safe and fish that are not?

[Sid]

The following link is in our care sheet section and quite helpful
Thiamin, Thiaminase, & Goldfish The list is of coarse fish to avoid.

[Lori P]

Nicole, I was able to get mine to eat pinkies without too much trouble at all, by scenting them with guppies and minnows. And I find now that sometimes they eat the pinkies, sometimes they eat the fish, sometimes they eat bits of both!! So it just depends. One of mine, Mordecai, is a piggy and was super easy to get feeding on pinkies and pieces of salmon as well as live guppies and minnows, or pre-killed fish. The littler one, however, only ate live guppies or minnows swimming in her water bowl for ages... then one day she dove at a fish, hit a piece of pinky instead, and ate it. After that, it was whatever she grabbed out of the water. And finally, she ate prekilled fish off tongs and even once ate a piece of salmon on a plate. It was just an ongoing process.

I don't know anyone in VA who breeds them; I got mine from a man in NYC. I do still have his contact info if you want it. But I know others on here will have them available in the spring.

Mine are VERY skittish; they never have tamed to being handled, so I don't handle them unless necessary. They dart away at the speed of light, lol, so you do have to be careful to not let them dart out of the tank when you're in it.

There is a link to what fish are safe and what aren't, but I don't know how to link it so I'll let someone else do it. :-) Goldfish are a no-no, there is concern over rosy red minnows, but guppies and the larger silver minnows that I'm finding at the bait stores here seem good. Pices of salmon and most trout are also safe.

Woodbridge is beautiful. :-) A little to hectic for my tastes... my mom and grandma go up there periodically to some German market... I can't think of the name of it now.

:-) Lori

[anji1971]

Hi, Nicole! Welcome to the forum. Looks like you're already discovering what a wealth of info can be found here!!

[NFS07]

Wow, you guys sure are quick to answer. It's nice. So as far as finding out which fish have thiamin in them could just ask the workers at the petstore or is the chance of them not knowing to high?

I do have a bait shop that I go to (I love fishing) so I could easyly get minnows there. They have all sizes. How would I know which size would work best to the size of the snake? Are those zebra dinos on the ok list or do they have thiamin? They are cheap for me to get and are amusing while they wait to be eaten. I might set up a feeder fish tank in my own home.

"So mister snake what kind of fish do you want today? We have this bright colored one here, this darker one, oh and we can't forget our lovely big fish. So what will you have today?"

Teehee.


Woodbridge is nice but I HATE the taffic. It's insane. I often feel like driving off to the side of the road and walking. I swear there are times where I would get there faster.

[GarterGuy]

Howdy and welcome to the forum Nicole. I also have a pair of Pugets (T.s.pickeringi) and can say thye're great little snakes to have. Mine switched over to eating pinky parts VERY quickly, after only having them scented with fish once or twice. Now they'll eat just about anything, pinks, fish fillet, snails, worms...hhmmm, think that's it....LOL. Haven't had any issues with them switching back, they always seem open to accept what ever I offer. As far as good fish choices, baitshop minnows will do well and yes, danios are ok too. I actually feed mine bits of rainbow trout fillet....I just freeze it and it makes it a bit easier come feeding time then handleing or having to buy live fish all the time. I also forcep feed all my snakes, just makes it easier to control what everyone is getting and also they tend to associate food with the forceps and not my hands....which is always nice...LOL. As far as temperment, they're great too, mine are pretty cool about being handled, although they're still a bit flighty, but that's expected of most baby snakes. They're the more active of my garters too, always seem to be out cruising around the tank or lounging under the heat lamp....don't really hide all that much. Well hope this info. helps some.....oh, as far as where to get them, just be careful to get captive bred animals, wildcaught or even captive born animals can be hard to work with and can have high mortality rates from stress and disease (learned that the hard way). My two I got from one of the members here who breeds garters (arzerkle)..picked them up at a local reptile show. They're in Ohio, so they might hit shows out your way.....drop them a note and see. There also will be plenty of babies from others here I'm sure come spring as well.....if you can wait that long....LOL. Well good luck and feel free to ask any other Q's.

[jompiej]

welcome from holland!