Found a snake...I thinks it's a garter

[Purple flippers]

Hi, just signed up here because I want to be as educated as possible about this. A friend found a baby snake a couple days ago, I live in PA and we have had a hell of a winter. Still lots of snow on the ground and more on the way this week, but we had a fluke couple of 50degree days. I guess the little guy got confused and came out to see the world. Lol. Not sure if he would have been ok in his own but my friend grabbed him up and put him in an empty cleaned out ice cream container. Knowing I love animals of all kinds she called me and asked if I would take it. Since I had a spare 10gallon tank I went to the pet store to see what I would need. The first store sold me small crickets and a container of red wigglers. Told me those should de the trick. And papertowels on the bottom of the tank would be fine. The second store told me if the worms and crickets don't work feeder Rosies would. So I bought them. They also said aquarium stones would be best for the bottom of the tank. Being over protective by nature I double checked on the advise given at the stores. Found an article saying red wigglers are toxic to Garter snakes and they won't eat crickets. Funny story is my fiancé had already placed a cricket in the tank and the snake and cricket were hanging out together under the half log thing I bought him. Lol. So we pulled out the cricket and put a container filled with water in the cage with the Rosies. It has been two days and he hasn't eaten anything. My questions are, is the tank set up well: aquarium peddles on the bottom. A water bowl hurried in the peddles so it is even same thing with a container with water and three feeder fish. A small half log for him to crawl under. That's it. Also, I need to know if it's ok that he hasn't eaten. Since I figured he's scared I haven't handled him since getting the tank set up. Just letting him have his own space. But he hasn't eaten and I am worried. Also, is he a garter snake? I have no idea but his pic is my profile pic. And I guess the only other thing I can say is his name is Jake the snake and I think I love him already ❤️

[infernalis]

The snake in your profile picture looks like a Dekayi snake.. it's hard to tell because the photo is so small.

I cheated and gave you a few extra posts in your post count so you can immediately post a full size picture on the forum.

Please remove the crickets from the snake's enclosure, as they do not eat insects and the crickets will only stress the snake out.

Red wigglers are the wrong kind of worms too.. You want night crawlers, will have to cut into smaller pieces.

Anyway before we get the proverbial cart in front of the horse, let's get a proper ID on the species, please post a larger photo to this thread, and.......

[chris-uk]

Welcome aboard. Let's see a photo and get you some good advice (sounds like the stores you've been too have been quite, quite wrong... grrrrr).

And don't worry about the not eating. A couple of days is nothing, whether it's a garter or Dekayi.

[snakeman]

Totally normal.my friend found two garters today and it's 30 degrees.

[slipknot711]

waiting on pictures... yeah im in RI and we had a few days in the low 50s. but night crawlers cut up will be great. they shouldnt actually be constantly fed on rosies, but if it gets it to start eating a few wont hurt.

[ConcinusMan]

These winter "garter snakes" that turn up in the NE almost always turn out to be not garters at all, but Northern brown snakes/dekayi.

[ConcinusMan]

Totally normal.my friend found two garters today and it's 30 degrees.

Yeah, and I was seeing them out all through January but it was way above normal temps and sunny most of the month. zonata were out too, just a few weeks ago, 60 miles east of me, then 2 days later we got a blizzard. Been cold and rainy ever since. Now that things are back to normal, ironically I will probably see fewer snakes this year out in March and April than I did in January and FEB.

[Purple flippers]

I can't figure out how to send a pic

[Purple flippers]

image.jpg

[chris-uk]

The photo is a bit blurry but I'm seeing a Storeria dekayi rather than a garter.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=storeria+dekayi

From memory, it's diet is pretty much earthworms and slugs, they are often out in colder weather than a garter, and... that's the extent of my memory. Other than that, Infernalis is the resident expert on Dekayi.