Care Sheet for Garter Snakes and Ribbon SnakesAverage Rating Given To This Care Sheet Is 4.58 (1=lowest, 5=highest) Last Updated: 03/12/2006 |
Main Category: | Snakes |
Sub Category: | Garter Snakes and Ribbon Snakes |
Care Sheet Submitted By: | Tiliquachub |
Years Experience: | 3 to 5 Years |
Species: | Garter Snake (thamnophis sirtalis) |
Other Species or Phases this Care Sheet May Cover: | All thamnophis |
Sexing and Characteristics: | Probing or popping with experience you can see a difference in the male and female by the tail. the Male’s tail will be longer and taper slowly compared to the female which will abruptly taper a few scales past the vent. |
Mostly Active During: | Day |
Substrate and Water Needs: | A large water dish is very important. You must clean it every two days or when it becomes soiled. the snake must be able to completely submerge it’s self.
Garters like to swim and will if their dish is large enough.
they also love to catch small fish/minnows and will spend lots of time doing so.
For a substrate news paper is clean and easy(although it is not very attractive) however, i find newspaper to be the best substrate.
lose substrates such as peat moss, sand, ect. can get into the water bowl, and make a big pain of cleaning, after bathing or swimming, and the garter is wet, the substrate will stick to the snake. dusty substrates might also cause respiratory problems.
you can use coconut or aspen bedding and some other similar things like that but I don’t have any experience with those.
BUT,
what ever you chose DON’t use CEDAR chips they are toxic! Some say pine is also toxic so to be, safe stay away from that too. |
Lighting and UVB: | 12 hours of Light for day/night cycling.
UVA/UVB not necessary, could be bennifical
I personally, have never used it, and have produced several healthy litters of baby garters, and the mother is still going strong. |
Temperatures and Humidity: | You should mist the cage once and a while. live plants(such as Philodendrons which are non toxic) add an attractive feature to the cage and will produce some humidity to aid in shedding and such.
The basking spot should be about 80-85 F degrees with the cool side around 65-70 F. |
Heating and Equipment: | A U.T.H.(under tank heater) with a spot light over it makes a good basking spot depending on the size and type of your tank.
If you are using a 10gal. tank, having both a spot light and a UTH will over heat it, in which you can just use the UTH.
you need at least two hide boxes,
one on the hot side and the other at the cooler side.
branches, logs, and rocks can be used for things to bask/climb on. |
Caging Provided: | I have a 25" garter in a 55gal. which most consider spacious.
a small garter can be housed in a 10gal but that doesn’t leave much room for plants,branches and other decorations.
a 20-30gal is best(if not more)
If your leaning more towards the commercal aspect of keeping & breeding garters, you can keep them in a breeder rack, I have one that holds 8 sweater boxes, and has about 350 sq inches of floor space. |
Diet: | Carnivorous |
Description of Diet: | For adults, mice*, fish/minnows, worms/night crawlers,slugs,tadpoles,frogs,toads and some times insects/crickets.
as a general rule you should avoid amphibians because they can carry parasites.
you can feed fish fillet but you must dust it and frozen fish can cause problems.
freezing fish, kills the thiamin, creating thiaminese, which will cause your snake to get a Vit B defficency.
DO NOT FEED GOLDFISH!!! gold fish are very high in thiaminese
you should feed them 3 to 4 times weekly if you give small prey items. If you use mice once a week is fine
* pinkys through adults depending on your snake’s size, feed nothing larger than twice the width of the snake’s head |
Supplements, Nutrition and Usage: | Not necessary if you give a varied diet with whole animals
but dusting a worm of two with Rep-Cal every week or so would be beneficial. |
Maintenance: | Winter brumation(reptilian hibernation)maybe necessary if you want to breed garters. it all depends on the snakes, I have bred garters multiple times with out intentionally cooling them, the light changes of winter, and the slightly cooler temps were all they needed.
If you plan on brumation you should do some good research in books before you try it, because, done wrong, it can kill your snake.
You should change the cage weekly or when ever your snake goes to the bathroom
(which is usually when you have just cleaned it! ;)
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Some Words on this Species: | Even thought they can be wild caught or cheaply priced in pet shops they are a very active and fun snake and are good as starter snakes or for professionals and can come in many interesting morphs, such as flame, melanistic, ammelanistic, leucistic, piebald and many more.
Please comment on this care sheet and tell me if you disagree or if i left anything out.
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