Awesome dark garter!

[Swayback]

Found this lil gem under a barrel today!

I've never seen one so dark!
The belly is grey, as opposed to the normal light olive drab I'm used to, there's some nice yellow and just a hint of red around its jaws...
Young garters are alway so feisty! This mellow as can be, never puffed up or hissed, barely even hit me with musk...cool snake!

[alan12013]

lol I remember getting musked a lot as a kid by them suckers. That one is pretty dark. It would be interesting to see what's being done if anything as far as line breeding them.

[dr. malcom]

awesome! love the little buggers!

[Swayback]

Yea many fond memory's wiping that crap off...or on others😈
So I actually looked into it...there's some wicked garter morphs out there!
I mean wow! Some of the colors and contrast is remarkable!
Honestly putting a lot of high dollar snakes to shame!
If you put their paint job on a bp...There's the new investment morph!
I actually contacted a couple of breeders to see what they say about it...


I usually just release any snakes a find in safer areas...I think the mowing mania, pet mammals and traffic pretty doom any animals I find or rescue around town...but I'm really tempted to hold on to this one...she( I think) already whoofed a worm down and she's so mellow...I'll prolly just admire her another day or so til I can get her out to the boonies...

[Pyrate81]

Very nice snake indeed. Nice find. Thanks for sharing.


There are a lot of garters at my nature center, one looked very similar to that one. It's amazing how many variations I've seen across the 10 or so garters I've seen this year. There was a triple stripe who had really bright yellows down its sides. Wish I was able to snap a couple pics.

[alan12013]

I used to catch ones that were pretty insane. I had "yellow racers", "blue racers", red racers", "checkered" and I believe I caught an albino checkered but I can't remember, I am about 90 percent sure I did though. Who are the breeders? I might consider getting some but I can't see much of a market for them not to mention they breed like crazy from what I've heard.

[bcr229]

We have a couple of CB garters and they're a hoot to watch in their enclosures, I just wish they were as chill as the wild one you found! Something I noticed is that toward the end of a shed cycle, after their eyes clear up but before they shed, they can get very dark like the one you found. Once they shed they almost look like a different snake.

[Albert Clark]

I used to catch ones that were pretty insane. I had "yellow racers", "blue racers", red racers", "checkered" and I believe I caught an albino checkered but I can't remember, I am about 90 percent sure I did though. Who are the breeders? I might consider getting some but I can't see much of a market for them not to mention they breed like crazy from what I've heard.

There are numerous species of garters out there with a couple of big time breeders. The animal pictured is a sub species of garter commonly known as the Dekays snake or" the brown snake". Not a true garter. Breeders of garters are Scott Felzer and Jeff Benfer. On a personal note, you can contact aareptiles38@gmail.com for garter snake info. Otherwise lookup these two gents for expert info. Stay in peace and not pieces.