Hellow and a few questions please.

[BabelaJoy]

My son, who is 8, begged me at the pet shop recently (Saturday) to buy him a snake. I told him no, no, no, no, no, because honestly, I do not have any love for snakes. However, he loves snakes and loves the shows on TV where people go trap snakes. He was literally in tears in the store. I felt it was not right to discourage this for him, based on my fears, so I said okay. I asked the pet shop which snake would be best for a child, something I do not have to feed live mice or rats (absolutely will not do this), and something that would not bite. They suggested a garter snake. We bought him a garter snake, a tank, a heat lamp, bedding or what they called substrate, and these feeder fish (not guppies or gold fish, black fish of some type, small). I have been reading on this forum for a few hours and have seen that garter snakes do bite, and this concerns me a lot. I have read that the bite does not hurt, but I would think on an 8-year-old, a bite would hurt. The snake seems tame when he takes it out, he keeps kissing it, and it has not seemed like he wanted to strike or bite as of yet, but is this something I have to worry about? If I Posted a picture, do any of you think you can tell me what species it might be from, its general temperament, how big it might get, etc? I have to figure out how to post a picture.

Another issue we are having is feeding this guy. We bought 12 of these feeder fish on Saturday, and they were all eaten by Sunday. Should I be limiting how often the snake eats, like 2 or 3 times a week? The pet shop told me that eat up to 6 fish a day. So, we went back on Sunday and bought 2 dozen more of these feeder fish, and half of them are gone, so this snake ate 2 dozen fish in 3 days. This seems like a bit much for small snake. Also, going to the pet shop every other day is out of the question, so is there something I can buy online in bulk, maybe something frozen, that this type of snake will eat? I absolutely will not buy mice/rats or anything like that. We have pet gerbils, have had pet rats and mice, and I love these animals too much to use them as food. I read on this forum somewhere that somebody fed their snake wet cat food. Is this something a garter can eat regularly? Crickets are out of the questions also as I abhor crickets. I also will not buy roaches, same thing, disgusting.

Well, thanks for reading. We are a pet loving family, have 4 cats, a dog, pet gerbils, and my other son who is 6, wanted to take all the little white feeder mice they had at the pet shop home. He was horrified to watch the pet shop feed one of these mice to a monitor lizard. We also have a chinchilla, have had pet rescue rats, and any time there are kittens in the neighborhood, we take them in and find them homes.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, and thanks for making a forum for us newbie snake owners to come ask our dumb questions, LOL.

Thanks again,

Joy

[adamanteus]

Hi Joy, and welcome to the forum. I'm pleased that you found us.

Don't worry about the bite of a Garter Snake, it is insignificant, even to an eight year old. Also, if the snake is calm and placcid so far it is likely to remain that way. This said, I don't think kissing is a good idea, for any number of reasons.

It sounds as though your new snake is large enough to take larger prey items, you might want to consider weaning it onto frozen/thawed pinky mice or strips of fish such as trout. Forget the crickets and roaches, Garters don't eat this type of prey at all.

We will certainly be happy to help you identify the species. You will find that the forums' anti-spam software will not allow you to upload photos until you have posted about half a dozen times, for the same reason you may notice that your posts don't appear on the forum immediately, this will soon end and you'll be a full member with full priviledges really soon.

Once again, welcome to the forum, and thanks for being such an understanding and giving parent!

[drache]

Welcome to this forum, Joy
it is not absolutely necessary to feed mice to your son's garter - they're merely nutritionally superior to many other foods
to can rest your concerns about crickets and roaches, as garters will not eat them anyway
I'm curious as to what kind of fish you are getting . . .
it sounds like your garter is eating a lot, but of course, I don't know how big the fish are - or the garter
generally I would feed a baby (up to about 8" or so) three times per week, a one-year-old a couple of times, or every five days, an adult once per week
with just fish, I'm not sure
please read the caresheets
http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets...itle=Main_Page
and since it looks like you'll be feeding primarily fish, do look at this article as well
http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets...?title=Thiamin,
don't worry about running to the petshop all the time - most garters can be persuaded to accept frozen/thawed fish pieces
you have quite a menagerie there
I am sure that with time you'll come to like your new addition more than you can now imagine
I hope this is enough to get you started
and ask anything
nice to meet you

[BabelaJoy]

Here is a picture of what we were told was a garter snake. My son named him Sparky.

[adamanteus]

Red-Sided Garter Snake. Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis.

[BabelaJoy]

Hi Joy, and welcome to the forum. I'm pleased that you found us.

Don't worry about the bite of a Garter Snake, it is insignificant, even to an eight year old. Also, if the snake is calm and placcid so far it is likely to remain that way. This said, I don't think kissing is a good idea, for any number of reasons.

It sounds as though your new snake is large enough to take larger prey items, you might want to consider weaning it onto frozen/thawed pinky mice or strips of fish such as trout. Forget the crickets and roaches, Garters don't eat this type of prey at all.

We will certainly be happy to help you identify the species. You will find that the forums' anti-spam software will not allow you to upload photos until you have posted about half a dozen times, for the same reason you may notice that your posts don't appear on the forum immediately, this will soon end and you'll be a full member with full priviledges really soon.

Once again, welcome to the forum, and thanks for being such an understanding and giving parent!

Thanks for your help. I have uploaded a picture, but apparently it won't post till it is approved by the moderators.

[BabelaJoy]

Red-Sided Garter Snake. Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis.

Thanks!!! How do I make the picture smaller so it does not distort the page on the forum, anybody know.

[BabelaJoy]

Welcome to this forum, Joy
it is not absolutely necessary to feed mice to your son's garter - they're merely nutritionally superior to many other foods
to can rest your concerns about crickets and roaches, as garters will not eat them anyway
I'm curious as to what kind of fish you are getting . . .
it sounds like your garter is eating a lot, but of course, I don't know how big the fish are - or the garter
generally I would feed a baby (up to about 8" or so) three times per week, a one-year-old a couple of times, or every five days, an adult once per week
with just fish, I'm not sure
please read the caresheets
http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets...itle=Main_Page
and since it looks like you'll be feeding primarily fish, do look at this article as well
http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets...?title=Thiamin,
don't worry about running to the petshop all the time - most garters can be persuaded to accept frozen/thawed fish pieces
you have quite a menagerie there
I am sure that with time you'll come to like your new addition more than you can now imagine
I hope this is enough to get you started
and ask anything
nice to meet you

I called the pet shop and asked them what the feeders were called for the garter snakes and they told me Rosies. I measured him and although he squiggled, he's approximately 18 inches long and about 1/2 inch fat. I have the picture posted below. I will read the care sheets, and have been reading alot on this forum, and would greatly appreicate suppliers name or anything like that.

Again, thanks everybody for reading. I told my son to stop kissing him.

[BabelaJoy]

Welcome to this forum, Joy
it is not absolutely necessary to feed mice to your son's garter - they're merely nutritionally superior to many other foods
to can rest your concerns about crickets and roaches, as garters will not eat them anyway
I'm curious as to what kind of fish you are getting . . .
it sounds like your garter is eating a lot, but of course, I don't know how big the fish are - or the garter
generally I would feed a baby (up to about 8" or so) three times per week, a one-year-old a couple of times, or every five days, an adult once per week
with just fish, I'm not sure
please read the caresheets
http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets...itle=Main_Page
and since it looks like you'll be feeding primarily fish, do look at this article as well
http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets...?title=Thiamin,
don't worry about running to the petshop all the time - most garters can be persuaded to accept frozen/thawed fish pieces
you have quite a menagerie there
I am sure that with time you'll come to like your new addition more than you can now imagine
I hope this is enough to get you started
and ask anything
nice to meet you

Oh, and I have touched the snake and even held it. I am fine with that when I am controlling the touching part, but when my son touches me with it, and I am not expecting it, it still freaks me out. I am sure that will stop soon.

Thanks for the welcome!!

[Sid]

Red-Sided Garter Snake. Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis.

Welcome to the forum. I agree with James on the speciec, Red-Sided Garter. You can find a photo of one in the care sheet section under Common Garter. My Garters that size I feed smaall mice and minnows from the bait shop.