Meet the gang!

[kibakiba]

The pond was dried up and the owners of the area dug up the area, it's now very dry here. I've only seen those 3 colours of snakes here but the blue ones are totally gone. My friends dad had 10 garters and he paid me 60 dollars for a blue one once. He said they were extremely rare. But I haven't seen anyone with a northwestern garter with a blue stripe.
When I was a kid I think one of my dad's workers caught a valley garter snake and let me hold it for a while... Until it bit me and I started crying I've always been interested in snakes, they just scared me when they bit

Have any of you seen the blue northwesterns? they look exactly like a regular garter here(black with tan sides) except the blue colour

[kibakiba]

Mama has literally transformed within a week. When I feed her she doesn't strike, she gently takes it, as if she was worried about biting me... She's calm and greets me when I walk by the tank, something Snakey usually did, and Mama only when she wanted food. And when I hold her she happily sits on my shoulder calmly for quite a while. Tonight she slithered right into my shirt and wont come out Looks like I'm whipped and she'll have her way... Pooping in my shirt or not

Snakey's days away from shedding now... I'll try to get a picture of him when he's extra vibrant

[ConcinusMan]

Very cool. Looking forward to that.

[ssssnakeluvr]

The pond was dried up and the owners of the area dug up the area, it's now very dry here. I've only seen those 3 colours of snakes here but the blue ones are totally gone. My friends dad had 10 garters and he paid me 60 dollars for a blue one once. He said they were extremely rare. But I haven't seen anyone with a northwestern garter with a blue stripe.
When I was a kid I think one of my dad's workers caught a valley garter snake and let me hold it for a while... Until it bit me and I started crying I've always been interested in snakes, they just scared me when they bit

Have any of you seen the blue northwesterns? they look exactly like a regular garter here(black with tan sides) except the blue colour

several people on here had blue northwesterns a few years ago.....got them from "Bob", a goon that was catching and selling "cool blue garters" on kingsnake.com. most were puget sound garters, but some were northwesterns. I haven't seen any recent photos of these snakes. not sure if they survived....Bob sold some crappy animals

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, I do hear that the blue northwesterns occur in the south puget area. Same place as pickeringii. Weird huh? must be a local advantage to the blue.

[kibakiba]

I don't live anywhere near puget sound. I live in the Lake Stevens/Granite Falls area :P I believe that's pretty far from there. I feel bad for those snakes that guy caught... Maybe I'll see another blue northwestern one day and will be able to catch it, they're so pretty

[ConcinusMan]

You're still in Puget garter territory. Could be a blue puget you are seeing. And that is not far from puget sound at all. Well, technically Possession Sound, which is really just part of the greater Puget sound area.

You're not far from Everett. That area is known for blue pugets too. I'd say that the blue stripe garters you are seeing are most likely T.s. pickeringii. Less likely that they are northwesterns (T. ordinoides)

I can't find it right now but there's a pic out there with a guy holding a handful of blue pugets, caught near Everett. I'd be willing to bet money that if I were there, it wouldn't take me an hour to find and catch one.

[kibakiba]

I lived in everett for about 3 years, and I've only found the little "common garters" around there. Around here the blue guys looked just like Mama and Snakey... From the pugets I've seen they're all blue, correct? These had tan sides and pugets have blue sides.

[ConcinusMan]

Some variations of Puget sound garters that might be found in your area. They will probably be either blue, or greenish. They are typically larger than your "common" northwestern garters, have bigger heads for the size of their body, get much larger than northwestern garters, and normally are only found near water where there is an abundance of amphibians to eat. Northwesterns can be found far from water and do not require a good source of amphibians nearby.

Northwestern garters are small and highly variable within the same area. Pugets tend to be pretty much all the same in their area.

Puget sound garter T. sirtalis pickeringii:

Pierce County blue pugets:


King County puget:


Red phase puget typically found in extreme N washington and into Canada:


So, NO. they are not always striking blue snakes

[kibakiba]

Well I had known that there were different morphs of them I hadn't seen the white one, though. But none of those look like the ones I had caught. Imagine Mama with a sky/light blue dorsal stripe, that's what it looked like. I can try to get a better picture of her if she decides to rest while I handle her. Her sides are a tan/light brown, which is what the blue snakes I found looked like. What I meant with the blue comment was, their dorsal stripe and sides are blue (or white), they look to be the same colour, right? The ones here are differently coloured Although I could understand that perhaps it was a different puget type? Another thing is, the pugets in the picture have such vibrant black colouring, the ones I had found varied from a slightly dull black to sort of brownish (like Mama). The one my friends dad had was pregnant and it was a deep brown with a blue stripe and tan sides