Opinions needed

[Tori]

These didn't come from Bob. A friend of mine found a couple of young boys carrying them around in a 5-gal bucket near his house. He bought them for $5 bucks each and then sent them to me. I have looked most of them over and haven't found any signs of mites or ticks, but I am keeping them away from my other snakes for a while yet.

Bob has started selling other garters besides pugets?

[Tori]

Steve I think you are right about the fitchis but the pickeringi doesn't have a side stripe, or mine don't. Am I wrong?

I did find that Washington has these garters:
Thamnophis elegans, western terrestrial garter snake
Thamnophis ordinoides, northwestern garter snake
T. s. concinnus, red-spotted garter snake
T. s. fitchi, valley garter snake
T. s. pickeringi, Puget Sound garter snake

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

Your "pickerengii" looks like it has 1 dorsal and 2 lateral stripes (white?). The Puget Sound Garter also comes with laterals and sometimes they're faded. Check out California Reptiles and Amphibians, go to the horizontal list of links at the top and click "beyond California", then go to the "Northwest" and look for the pickerengii pics and compare....

Would love to talk more, but I start a new job tomorrow at Redwood National Parks. I'll keep checking in.

Steven

[infernalis]

Bob has started selling other garters besides Pugets?

Bob has some reds in the classifieds lately.

Now that is a cool deal, I wish someone would find me a kid with a bucket full like that

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

all the red ones with the red cheeks are thamnophis sirtalis fitchi - valley garter snake ( or so it seems, im not 100% because the color of the ones in the corner are hard to see, and that other one might be a yellow puget...need better pics - sorry if someone already said that im to lazy to read through the whole thing

[Tori]

Never heard of a yellow puget sound, what does an adult look like?

[Zephyr]

Hmm... I'm gonna stay out of this one. My expertise lies in eastern garter species. :P

[beaniesmommy]

Stupid question, but I was told that it is illegal to remove snakes from there natural habitat in Washington? If it isn't I want to go find a friend for my wandering. Does anyone know?

[Tori]

You are right, it is illegal. Unfortunately my friend didn't know that at the time and I thought he was just talking or I would have told him so when he mentioned it briefly a week ago. All he said was he was going to send me a bunch of snakes and I said to go ahead. I told him after they arrived that he had just broke the law, so there won't be any more shipments.

[beaniesmommy]

Tori,

I don't want you to think I am "accusing" you of anything. I was more curious because I was told that but I got excited because I thought I could go on a expedition and find some more for our home. So thank you for the info. If you need any of those to go to a good home just let me know. I have a 40 gallon tank that is waiting for a couple perminent residents.