Polymorphism at its finest!

[BUSHSNAKE]

is she gravid?

[ConcinusMan]

Who? the big one? You know, I'm not really sure but I'm thinking she's not. Some ordinoides mate in the fall and have babies in early spring. I'm thinking she's one of those. Most of them mate in late winter/early spring and have babies later in the summer.

The very red striped one is definitely gravid. I'm thinking sometime in the next 30 days or so, she'll pop.

[BUSHSNAKE]

hows your gravid female doing Richard?

[ConcinusMan]

Which one? Anyway, the red striped ordinoides girl refused food for a week (totally unlike her) so I thought she was going to pop but she pigged out on night crawlers today.

All the snakes are doing fantastic. They are eating very well, gravid or not, on night crawlers, silversides, and pinkies. Some of the smaller ordinoides will only take slugs so far. No problem finding slugs any time of year around here.

In the past, all of my snakes have taken food up to just 2 days before popping. Heck the big ordinoides girl that is shedding right now, ate all through her shed period. Blue eyes and everything, she kept eating. She ate 4 night crawlers just hours ago. I'll have to post pics tonight around midnight. She's still shedding and I have to go to work.

[BUSHSNAKE]

are you expecting babies anytime soon? do you know when they are about to drop?

[Jeff B]

Richard that bright red striped one is very pretty, hope she pops soon, it will be interesting to see what her babies look like and if any of them look like her.

[ConcinusMan]

My experience with them before has been that most offspring look like the mother. But I have also seen litters from multiple fathers resulting in wide variation in the offspring. But it does seem like the mother has more influence on the appearance of the offspring, judging from past litters.

I can say that she really shouldn't be any later than the 4th of July. My concinnus could take as long as sometime in August. Some are farther along than others though.

I will definitely shoot for April-June litters next year.

[Hollis_Steed]

This picture made me wonder if your Red single striped ordinoides ever delivered? The one you were advertising in the classifieds. ??

It's a much larger range than T.s. concinnus that's for sure.

I really like that last white striped one. Bottom pic, upper left. Nice. Looks very gravid too. You know, it's funny, you can go just 5 or 10 miles away and the ordinoides found will be completely different. There's a population near me that has mostly very dark colored snakes with very faint stripes and no patterns like the bottom pic, lower right. 3 miles from that, there's a population that is mostly orange or red striped brown snakes with lots of orange flecks.

Some more examples of T. ordinoides. ALL of these guys are from the same population and found in the same area of Oregon as the snakes Redspot has shown us:

[Hollis_Steed]

Whoops, sorry Richard, I posted the last post before following this thread to the end! I guess these later posts (which I just read) answer my questions!

[infernalis]

Here the only garters are Eastern, Thamnophis Sirtalis Sirtalis. here is variations of what I find in my yard...