Hellow and a few questions please.

[anji1971]

Welcome to the forum, Joy!
Once you get used to Sparky, you'll most likely be as fascinated with these little animals as the rest of us here! And this is definitely the place to come for help and info.
By the way- he's a real cute little snakie!!

[Lori P]

Welcome Joy!! You sound like such a wonderful, responsible pet family. :-) Your snake is just beautiful!!!! You'll love this forum, and you'll learn a lot. :-)

One thing you might consider is the pre-frozen feeder mice... having had rescued pet mice and rats myself, that was a hard concept for me to deal with but I also wanted my snakes to have the best nutrition for them (it's not their fault they're snakes, you know?) So I did a lot of research and found a company that talked about the health, comfort and welfare of their feeder mice, and also described the euthanasia method. It's not so hard to feed these frozen mice when you know they were bred exactly for this reason and treated humanely.

But I think if your comfort level is the fish, your snake will still be fine. Do you have an established fish tank you can keep feeder fish in? Then you could buy more at a time...

Keep us posted! :-)

[mikm]

Hey again Joy ... Looks like you found the forum without me. Good job !!! You'll find tons of stuff here ... all you could ever need. As for biting that's usually out of fear (your snake looks pretty docile) or a mistake as in a feeding response. Garters have little teeth kind of like velcro not what you would think in regards to a snake. Fearing a bite is just that ... the fear thing. Most often a garter will musk (poop) on you while trying to escape rather then bite .

Best of Luck & WELCOME

[Lori P]

OOOOHHHH I never knew that "musking" was pooping!! I thought it was some kind of fear scenting. I swear, all this new knowledge won't fit in my little blonde head... :-)!!!

[ssssnakeluvr]

Welcome to the forum! definitely a red sided garter. nice looking snake too!! at that size he or she will eat a ton of rosies. you can save a bit of money by buying fresh trout and cutting it into small chunks and freezing them separately. you can thaw what you need for a feeding. once or twice a week will be fine. frozen/thawed mice are better nutritionally, but aren't necessary.

[Thamnophis]

Welcome here Joy,
You bought your son a very beautiful snake. This red sided gartesnake is very suited for a beginner.

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard, Joy.

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, Joy
I think you got a girl there

[enigma200316]

welcome to the forum...............

[salzar]

hi joy what a nice thing to do for your child, my kids wanted a pet for eons but we rent so dog/cat is not an option, so a snake is great, remember to clean the tank often and always have fresh water on hand other than that please no huggin or kissing... heeeeeheeee bye
michelle