New litter of Easterns (WC)

[wxknight]

I found a few orange and reddish easterns where I live in MA. One or two of them dropped about 60 babies one night and the next day a third dropped 10, then one I though was a male dropped even more. So I had around 80 neonates slithering around the tank. I let the adults and all but 12 of the babies go since. Here are some pictures.
And I was wondering if babies get more colorful with age because I figured I'd have more red and orange ones but they aren't showing amy crazy colors. They have gotten a little more colorful after a few days though.

babies 1.jpgbabies 2.jpgbabies 3.jpgbabies 4.jpgbabies 5.jpg

[chris-uk]

Welcome to the forum.

I don't keep Easterns, but I believe the colours will intensify if the particular scrub has a disposition to a red or orange. However Eastern Garters are highly variable in their colouring so you may not get the same sort of colours as you saw on the mother.

[d_virginiana]

They do color up as they get older. How many are you planning on keeping? If you don't want to keep 12, I'd say you should pick the 3-4 that have the brightest coloration. Looking at the pictures, there were a couple that stood out above the others color-wise.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Do you have any pics of the adults?

[wxknight]

I plan on keeping 12 for now until they show their colors a little more, then I'll let a few more go. There are two herping spots within less than a mile of each other where I live. One has nearly all normal yellow easterns and the other has 25% or so red/orange ones. I'll post some more pictures and some of the adults.

babies 6.jpgbabies 7.jpgbabies 8.jpgbabies 9.jpgbabies 10.jpg

[wxknight]

A couple more. I don't have many of the third female which looks similar to the more red one, but the checkerboard pattern had a hint of green which was cool.
adults 2.jpgadults 3.jpgadults.jpg

[wxknight]

A long time ago I found about 20 garters under some rugs near a pond. One of them had a neon green checkerboard, unlike the usual bluish ones you see around here. I'm gonna be looking for that trait next time I go garter hunting and see if I can try and get a litter of those. I'd call it an emerald eastern, if the morph doesn't already exist in the trade. Has anyone else ever seen a bright green one? And it's different than the darker maritime green, or brownish green you see on easterns, it's an almost fluorescent green. If I'm lucky maybe one of the 12 I have will have the trait since one of the mothers had a hint of it.

But anywho, I'll keep you guys posted on the babies and toss some more pictures up in a week or so or whenever they shed next.

[wxknight]

adults 3.jpg

I thought this one looked like a flame, but lacking the deep red. Has that whitish stripe and more colorful flank stripes.

[wxknight]

I thought I posted pictures of the adults but I don't see them here so let me try again. Here's 2 of the 3 larger females.

babies 10.jpgbabies 6.jpgadults.jpg

[wxknight]

Here's the whole gang. 3 females, 1 male and 1 smaller one that could be a female but not sure.
adults 4.jpg