Proper care??

[Thamnophis]

Chrissy wrote: It is grayish brown with black diamond spots.
So I thought: that's probably no Thamnophis.
Then I looked at the snakes that live in her neighbourhood.
The conclusion was it could be a Storeria dekayi.

(Fourty years reptile-experience helps too )

[garter newbie]

So I have a brown/dekay snake not a garter. See I told you I know nothing about snakes. Thank you everyone for all your help. This site really has a great group of members - you are very knowledgable and quick to respond to all my questions. I would highly recommend this forum to everyone from the novice like myself to long-time garter enthusiasts. I guess now I'll have to try to find a brown/dekay snake forum to join . I think we are going to keep it. I was able to find some basic info about the snake and a care sheet for keeping them online. It doen't seem like it will be too difficult. A lot of the setup is the same as for garters. Thanks again.

Chrissy

[sschind]

They are fairly easy to keep if you can find suitable food for them. Like I said, search this forum for threads pertaining to worms and feeding. I'm going of memeory but it seems to me that most of the worms (red wiggler, leaf worms) that you find in bait shops are unsuitable for snakes. Also, with a worm diet you are probably going to want to supplement with calcium a bit. Just dip one end of the worm in come calcium powder and they shouldn't have a problem.

Good Luck