Something ive been waiting all my life for.

[suliman]

honestly, from the time i was 4 years old and my uncle picked up a snake and handed it to me, ive always wanted to have one as a pet. Incidentally from what i can recall it was some sort of garter snake which i held for an all to short period of a few mins, until my mother and grandmother yelled at me to put it down and run away.

although my family and friends refuse to understand how i feel about such a creature, i cannot give up on having my own snake. I will even go so far as renting out an apartment to house my snakes if i must.

anyway, ive decided to allocate around $200 to obtaining my pet, and i hope to have everything set up soon.

to all the experienced herp owners out there, if you had around $200 and were in my position, how would you get started. Im planning to look around my local pet stores in my city to find a pair of garters (preferably as young as possible, male and female), and something like a 20-35gal tank. Ive been reading the things i find online about garter care, though i can never get enough.

what were your first experiences with owning garters and any advice for a beginner?

also i must ask this. how cognitive are snakes. Do they recognize you as their owner. I know they can smell the air with their tongues, how does this affect their behavior to people, if at all.. Any info would be appreciated.

thanks.

[gregmonsta]

Sounds like your on the right track with reading up on garter care. a suitable escape proof enclosure, a heat-source, suitable substrate and a supply of suitable food + supplements and you're ready to go. You're also likely to get a better deal/selection obtaining your snakes from one of the many breeders on this forum . I would say that they definately recognise their owners and each snake has it's own personality.

Here's the forum caresheet - http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets...ake_Care_Sheet

This is one I was putting together for other forums/future buyers - http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husb...et-please.html

[guidofatherof5]

It's nice to have you on the forum. Your first experience story sounds so familiar to many of the forum members. The little scrubs imprint on us at a young age and from then on we're hooked. Greg has given you rock solid advice. Your $200 should be plenty good to start. My advice on an enclosure would be to buy used and save some money. Try Craigslist.com. Do a "reptile" search. Give the enclosure a good cleaning with some bleach. Garter snakes don't care about the price as long as it's comfortable for them. An old cardboard box can be a perfect hide to them.
Your snake will know you and come to trust you. I have some that shoot out to me to be held. They like interaction and are very curious about everything that goes on around them. I catch mine watching TV.
The care sheets Greg suggested are a good place to start. Get to know the safe food list for your snake. Nightcrawlers, slugs, safe fish(salmon,trout,tilipia), pinkies. The fish and pinkies can be bought frozen and then thawed for feeding.
The forum members are ready to help you in anyway. If you live in my area I will even give you a pair for my wonderful radixes free of charge.

[drache]

welcome to the forum

[Didymus20X6]

I've managed to put together a fairly intricate and comfortable enclosure for my snakes for not a lot of money. Of course, it took some work to put them together, but it's well worth it. I think I only spent about $25 just to get started, and with all the additions, expansions, and other things, maybe about $100 total.

Look through MY ENCLOSURE THREAD to see if anything there gives you some ideas.

Also, for inside, I recommend using natural rocks, tree limbs, etc. Just be sure to bake them in the oven at 225F for a good long time to kill any unwanted organisms.

[Charis]

200 dollars is a good amount to start with. My advice would be to get creative with your enclosure, there are a lot of neat things you can do for very little money, they just take some time to find or put together. The other thing I would suggest is looking around & finding the type of garter you want most & getting a pair of those to start off with, even if it takes most of your money to get the type you really want. When I got my first snake, a classic corn, I didn't really care what morph & got this one at the pet store (paid too much for a classic too) it was the first one I'd seen that I liked. However pretty soon I'd seen so many pictures of the morphs that the pet store doesn't carry that I ended up really wanting some of these other kinds. So if you only plan on getting one or two, make sure it's what you really want, not the first ones you can get.

[suliman]

i live in jersey city/nyc area. i would love to find someone close by.

thanks for all the great comments. didymus, i was reading your enclosure post even before i registered on these forums. The only thing i feel is that its not conventional, however you seem to be getting much praise for innovation and your snakes seem very good with this setup. Also, that enclosure seems to be almost escape proof considering its a sealed container. I definitely will consider this as an option to house them. any problems with this setup at all that you can find?

charis, the snake i want to get is whatever snake i find to have the best temperment. I wouldnt want to get a really colorful morph at the cost of it being too agressive for me to have issues whenever i need to care for it. My choice will be based purely on this factor, and if such a snake happens to be particularly pleasing to the eye, then thats always a plus.

[Mommy2many]

Welcome to the forum! I live on the New York / Connecticut border. I have 10 8 week old baby Eastern Garters if you would like a pair. They were born to my female "Stewie" on August 6th. They are eating salmon, earthworms and cut up pinkie parts. Also the occasional live fish. If you'd like, we could meet half way or something like that if you are interested. PM me with any ideas/thoughts. Good Luck!

[Charis]

Good, if you are thinking about what you want in a snake. My advice was more don't get the first garter you see just because you really want a snake right NOW. Sometimes that works out okay but sometimes you regret it later.

[mustang]

WELCOME ur first expierience is better than mine...when i was little my dad told me to come out side and said he killed a snake so he showed me and flung it over the fence then we went inside to see if he was killing a venomus snake and he cursed a lot saying it was a "good snake" a checkered garter! ....now i have one as a pet o thee irony! good luck with urs ...i started with a small aquarium but then he kept hitting his head on the wall so i spent $80 on a 55 gal! so if i were u id go ahead and get ur snakes but save up to get a bigger aquarium asap!