My male Oregon Red-spotted Garter Snake

[Greg'sGarters]

This is my male Oregon Red-spotted Garter Snake

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He is a little bit snappy but I feel that he will produce nice babies.

[ConcinusMan]

Classic example of snakes from the southern Willamette Valley. (Corvallis, Salem, Eugene) Nice snake!

[guidofatherof5]

Nice.

[ConcinusMan]

As you go farther north through the valley, the heads darken until by the time you get to Portland/SW WA, the heads are almost always entirely black on top and you start seeing more laterally striped ones.

[Greg'sGarters]

Thank you. I usually don't hold snakes by the head but as I was taking the first 2 pictures, he was striking at my iPhone lens. And I've been bit by him, he can deliver a pretty powerful bite for a garter snake.

[ConcinusMan]

I do hear that only very rarely from concinnus owners. Heck, I rarely find even wild ones that bite. They usually just squirm and musk with no threat display or biting. Sure, it happens occasionally, but only one attempt and then they quit. Never had any that didn't tame right down. Females do seem much less nervous and flighty though, especially the big ones.

[Greg'sGarters]

Yeah, I've never seen any garter snakes (except 1 pregnant female of mine and this guy) that will bite more than once. Usually if they even try to bite, they only bite once and then just give up and stay still. This guy flings his body around wildly, if that doesn't work, he sprays musk (pretty bad smelling musk too, worse than any other musk I've smelled), and then finally he bites/strikes. But I feel that after brumation, once he gets a chance to mate, he will tame down a little bit.

[ConcinusMan]

I wouldn't count on it. Males in particular can be quite stubborn, prefering to be little *** holes and stay that way. Sometimes I think it's because they just aren't as intelligent as the females for some reason.

[RedSidedSPR]

My two males are sweet as can be, and the females a complete a-hole.

Nice snake, love the orange head

[ConcinusMan]

My two males are sweet as can be, and the females a complete a-hole.

Anything's possible but when you've dealt with the numbers of them that I have, for as long as I have, one tends to generalize. There are always exceptions. Remember that thing I was saying about female intelligence? Well, sometimes that means a female concinnus' will just decide she doesn't like certain people for no particular reason. Males tend to act like they do, with everyone, while females pick and choose who they like and who they don't.