Oh... oh my

[drache]

Lori
how cool
can we trade babies in spring?

sometimes my males will do this of season but the female isn't receptive.

according to my vet, many garters mate before brumation
and the females may just store the sperm
have your females never been gravid the next spring after such matings, Amanda?

[Lori P]

Michael, I was confused about the difference, also. The Florida Blues have the eastern look with the blue shading (which never comes out in my pics, I'll have to get them outdoors one day; they are such a gorgeous blue). The similis have different markings, like Shannon said.

We'll have to post pics of both of them side by side to compare. I'll see if I can find some.

[Lori P]

Rhea, yes, unless I fall in love with all 2,000 and decide to keep them. LOLOL Any chance she'll just have 2??

[drache]

Any chance she'll just have 2??

sure
with a first time mom that's a real possibility

[Lori P]

Well... according to Dan, she had just had a litter. I think these two have been doing the deed together for a while!! My little (quite big, actually) girl is a hussy.... LOLOL

[guidofatherof5]

Yes, a hussy but a happy hissing hussy! Sorry, it's to early on Sunday morning for me to be thinking.

[brain]

Michael, I was confused about the difference, also. The Florida Blues have the eastern look with the blue shading (which never comes out in my pics, I'll have to get them outdoors one day; they are such a gorgeous blue). The similis have different markings, like Shannon said.

We'll have to post pics of both of them side by side to compare. I'll see if I can find some.

Well, TY. I know the Corn and Gopher have a few color differences in he wild, but I was never aware the many color difference between sub species’ like the garter.

This makes it difficult to decide what species’ snake I want to provide a home for. It would be helpful to see (as close as possible) the differences.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

you can check out this article here

http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets...s_from_Florida

which I recently added some more information and photo's to. A few differences I have noticed visually between similis and sirtalis:

The "checkered" part on the backs of the two snakes differ in size and shapes. If you start at the stripe and go down, there are often 2 rows if very square checkers, very prominent well defined on the easterns, and 3 or 4 rows of less defined checkers on the similis.

As babies, I noticed the easterns have extremely huge beady eyes. even more so than other eastern babies!

The labial scales on a similis are extremely bright and well defined from the rest of the head, while on the easterns they are usually a little more toned down and not so stand-out-ish.

These are just a few of the little quirks I use to ID the two snakes in my head. It's so instantaneous for me to look at a blue garter from florida and say "sirtalis" or "similis" that it's very hard for me to articulate what it is that helps me decide that so quickly. I guess it just comes with expierience.

[brain]

she had just had a litter.

Webster definition

Litter - the offspring at one birth of a multiparous animal <a litter of puppies>
And a
Clutch - a group of eggs laid by a reptile or bird.

What do we call the group of newly “born” garters?

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

So Lori... are you ready for THIS yet?!?!?!
I only had my female for an hour before I suddenly had 20 more of her... at least you've got a LITTLE bit of time