new snake owner says hello

[bigdaddydan74]

greetings to everyone. just got a garter from a friend and was doing some research and found this forum. imm sure it will be a great help!!!

[felicianolis]

You are welcome in this forum! ;-D

[ssssnakeluvr]

Hello and welcome to the forum!!! What kind of garter did you get?? Hope we can be of any help to ya!!!

[bigdaddydan74]

not sure yet, trying to find out it came from found it in idaho it has red checker sort of.

[bigdaddydan74]

i will post some pics early next week

[ssssnakeluvr]

Welcome to the forum!! If the garter you got was from Idaho and has red on it, it's a valley garter, thamnophis sirtalis fitchi. I grew up in Idaho, small town of Cascadem 75 miles north of Boise. I used to catch them up there. I currently have a large female valley garter....32 inches long!!

[bigdaddydan74]

this one is about 24 inches

[ssssnakeluvr]

that's the average size I used to find, males tend to be smaller. I had a friend out south of Boise that was almost 4 ft long! He sent it to Scott Felzer, but it passed away... do you know where in Idaho it was found??

[bigdaddydan74]

around the post falls/coeur d'alene area

[ssssnakeluvr]

Pretty country up there!!! Valley garters are primarily amphibian eaters, mainly frogs. They normally take fish ok too. My female takes frozen/thawed fish and pinkie rats.