Rescued a Wandering Garter Snake

Outside of taking it to a Vet, are there writeups or simple ways to figure out age/gender?
Im still learning about the snake, doing reading/research... Hell it took a good week to find the specific species, only to learn that it is 100% carnivorous after spending money on a bag full of crickets LOL

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Thamnophis.com and thamnophis Facebook page can help you.

You can take an educated guess on the gender based on the shape of the tail past the vent. See the web page for some details. You can also take a pic of this area and post it to get more expert opinion.

Although Garters do not eat crickets, they do eat a wide variety of food like nightcrawlers, fish, frogs and pinky mice.


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Ive been experimenting on food (while waiting on these damn crickets to die off LOL)... Ive determined that she loves fish and (live) baby "fuzzy" mice... It was a brutal 6 minutes watching it snatch/kill and swallow the mouse butt first LOL

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Fish can contain thiaminase so they should be fed sparingly. If the garter is big enough to eat mouse fuzzies then that's what I would offer.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Fish can contain thiaminase so they should be fed sparingly. If the garter is big enough to eat mouse fuzzies then that's what I would offer.

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Yeah, working on finding the perfect species of feeder... Ill probably be breeding feeder guppies, i did as a kid for fun

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* i plan to alternate between mouse and fish

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I feed mine pieces of tilapia from the grocery store with calcium sprinkled on (since there's no bones). Nightcrawlers are cheap and they love them. Do frozen/thawed pinkies instead of live - Garters do not constrict so they will swallow the mouse alive.


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How about posting a picture? Here's a pic of mine

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9fdad5574d.jpg


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One question I do have... what is the best way to determine how often to feed my snake? Just offer it food every day until it eats?

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Originally Posted by Southcross

One question I do have... what is the best way to determine how often to feed my snake? Just offer it food every day until it eats?

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Garter snakes have a very high metabolic rate thus burn foodstuffs rather quickly. A adult should be fed a appropriate sized meal every 3 to 4 days. They really don't digest fur very well so pink mice or pink rats is a safer choice. Sally's frozen San Francisco Bay brand silversides are a safe fish against thiaminase and endoparasite loads. If your snake is wild caught be advised its already living with a high parasitic load and stress from recent captivity.

Yeah... I already figured it has parasites :-\ as for food i have to both a breeding shop for mice down the street from work and a specialty aquarium shop that i think can get me what ever i want

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Originally Posted by Southcross

Hell it took a good week to find the specific species, only to learn that it is 100% carnivorous after spending money on a bag full of crickets LOL

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All snakes are 100% carnivorous. Insects count as "meat." :)

Vagrans are very cool snakes......

.....and pack a fairly toxic venom. Good thing they have a very crappy delivery system.

How exactly was it "rescued"? Also keep in mind some states have laws against keeping native reptiles.

Best bet would be to let it go and buy a captive bred one off faunaclassifieds.