Personality wise, what's your favorite breed?

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I agree other than the Blacknecks.I have had five and all were pleasant.

haha, my blacknecks haaaated me for their first 8 months or so here. They were picky eaters and did not hesitate to puff up at me. Lately, they've been quite calm. The main reason they are on the naughty list is because as babies they can be challenging feeders.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I must say though, I thought the similis were insane until I start keeping cali red sideds. Pffff. My infernalis are the most JUMPY, flippy, suddenly-jump-off-their-rocks-and-zoom-up-the-glass snakes in the whole room!

[snakeman]

I must say though, I thought the similis were insane until I start keeping cali red sideds. Pffff. My infernalis are the most JUMPY, flippy, suddenly-jump-off-their-rocks-and-zoom-up-the-glass snakes in the whole room!

Yeah, they are nuts!

[ConcinusMan]

Gregmonsta said: parietalis ... very bold and inquisitive.

That's what I'm talkin' about. They don't necessarily have to be "nice" or "easygoing" all the time.

What I loved about my concinnus was their inquisitive nature, and of course, most were nice and easygoing too. But I love the snakes that you can almost hear them thinking, they check out everything, and seem to learn quickly. You can see it their eyes and their actions that they are thinking. And of course, they almost seem to appreciate you, and greet you with enthusiasm.

While my ordinoides were always "nice" once they settled in, they just didn't display the traits I mentioned above.

[Jeff B]

I like the radix too, they seem to be extra alert and curious.
I agree it still can be an individual thing, you will find nasty bad apples in any of the breeds, but one thing I will add as a general statement females are much, much easier to tame up than males of any of the species or subspecies, so if I wanted to have just one garter snake for a pet I would probably start with a female, unless space was an issue.

[drache]

I've got several very sweet males
both of my marcianus males are very personable, more so than the females
the vagrans male I've got is very chill with humans

[Charis]

I have very little experience, but can say that my female pickeringi is nicer than the male. If you open up the cage & put your hand down in there, she will come out from wherever she is & get on your hand. The male is very flippy & has to be chased whenever he needs to be taken out of the cage & he likes to musk.

[ConcinusMan]

Same goes for any concinnus I have had over the years. ^^^

Still, I wouldn't keep her alone all those years. I tolerated the male 'cause first off, he was gorgeous, and second, he kept her company, third, I got lots of really good babies! The female was my true love though. It was really hard for me when her time came to say goodbye. I'm still not really over it. 21 years is a long time. (That's half my life I had her!)

[tminc]

The easterns blacknecks I have are really social and wonderful creatures,the redspotts and the pugets are the tamest,the redsides and the checkereds are very energetic and always up to something when they are awake.

[ConcinusMan]

Thanks for everyone's input. It's appreciated! You know what kinda funny is that the feistiest, most spirited fighters I encounter in the field (in my immediate area) are ordinoides! And yet, once you get them in your hands and get them settled down, they are quite boring! In my experience, once the initial encounter is over, they are so calm and not inquisitive (unless they smell food) that working with them in captivity can be quite boring. Usually all I get from sirtalis concinnus is a nice, wet, messy musking, but no impressive threat display. Ordinoides on the other hand, always put on a show with the "viper impersonation" and even sometimes bite and chew. But like I said, once they figure out that isn't working, they settle right down and do well in captivity, but don't have near the social behavior or inquisitiveness of sirtalis.