Howdy from Colorado

First time owner, I recently rescued a Wandering Garter Snake (Thamnophis elegans vagrans) from an unknown fate... I've been learning a lot in the two weeks I've had her (he/she/it? no idea, no idea on age either). Named the snake Dolores Umbridge (regardless of gender) in honor of the coworker that screamed bloody murder when it found its way into our office LOL

Welcome! Get ready, you stay here reading and you will be getting a ball python soon enough. :D

welcome!!! plenty of garter keepers here.

we love pictures!

Welcome to the hobby!

Garter snakes are awesome, even better than ball pythons in my opinion. They stay small, don't need a heat gradient, don't need humidity, don't need to be fed rodents, and are live bearers, so they don't lay eggs. I used to catch a ton of them when I was a kid.

Welcome.

Wanna-be garter snake owner here.
I'm jealous.
Congrats.

I've done a little bit of research and reading... "Wandering Garter Snakes" (Thamnophis elegans vagrans) are not like most other Garter Snakes...

http://www.gartersnake.info/articles...ns-vagrans.php

Semi-Aquatic
Mildly Venomous
"technically" a Constrictor (but not like a Boa)

The live fuzzy I fed her was grabbed and held underwater for about 1-2 minutes... the mouse was easily very dead before the snake started to swallow it. I took a rough 6 minute cellphone video of the whole thing, quite brutal, I might edit and toss it up on Youtube. I need to take better pictures and I'll do that in time, since the snake is wild it is very easily startled, it has only recently gotten used to seeing me "moving" without it hiding... she does the "I'm just a twig, no reason to pay attention to me" act very well

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

They stay small

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oh, and another interesting 'atypical' tidbit... can grow up to 42" Long, that is massive for a garter snake. Mine is in the 18-24 region, which even if she is done growing, quite big for a Garter.