Good for you! When I was a child I had a "pet" garter snake that had babies. It was quite exciting, though my mother didn't think so. . .I am always encouraged to hear of gardeners befriending, rather than killing, snakes. They are so important in the garden! Kudos to you for teaching your children not to fear them! rosebush

I adore snakes (had a pet corn snake as a child) and was very excited to see a black snake has taken up residence in my backyard. The garters usually stick to the front yard. I usually "save" my neighbors from them.

My dd brought a friend over to see them today and her mother told her never to touch them or she'd get salmonella and die. Nice, huh?

I always figure there's no need to fear that which we understand.

Heather

That is a good story, and I love garter snakes, too. Last night before dusk, I was working around the yard and saw a 2foot long garter go sliding by into the compost heap. What a thrill! I loved the photo you posted also. Good work! Naturally, I am wondering what and how to feed such a small snake. Do they just go about fending for themselves at birth?

Great story and excellent photo of one of the babies!

By the way I think it is actually a baby Northern Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi dekayi). Brown snakes are closely related to garter snakes.

The reason I think it is a brown snake is the appearance of a ring around the neck (found in the babies not the adults) and the head color darker than the body, as well as the lack of light colored stripes.

In any rate, a very nice picture and a great story!

Actually, it's not a ring but a small amount of shedding skin. I removed the dead mother so it was definately a garter. All the live ones started shedding right after birth from what I could tell.

I had to look up what to do with the babies. Apparently, they fend for themselves from birth. Some hang around the mother for a few hours or days but she doesn't provide for them. It'd be nice if they ate fire ants!

H.

The shedding skin would also explain why the head looks darker than the body. And yep, baby snakes are on their own. I fear the fire ants are more likely to get the snakes than the other way around, but as long as the snakes are healthy they won't stick around to get swarmed by fire ants.

Very neat picture with the penny for contrast. The snake is so tiny.

Thanks! I used to do wildlife rescue so I can usually id local snakes. Of course, it typically involved saving someone from a snake and releasing it away from humans and their shovels. They are beautiful creatures.

Heather

Ironically, I read this thread yesterday afternoon at work and then found a small dead garter snake in my driveway upon arriving at home. It looks like it got run over when my wife got home.

And yep, fire ants were already eating the poor little guy.

We found a little garter and my boys want to keep hin. What can we feed it? We have tried very small feeder crikets from the pet store. How often will it eat? Any information would be great. Thanks & God bless, Donna & the boys:o)

For information on keeping a garter as a pet, you can visit http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests/reptiles/snakepets.htm. Just remember, don't over handle the snake and if it stops eating (or refuses food) it needs to be released. You can visit http://www.aboutsnakes.com/garter_snakes/gartersnakesaspets.html for information on providing a suitable habitat and what to feed.

Heather

They will eat crickets and eathworms. We had one in a terrarium once with a turtle we were feeding canned dogfood and the snake ate the dogfood! As a teenager I had a job feeding snakes at a nature center, so I was amazed that the garter ate dead food. The closest I had ever seen was that I could get a cornsnake to eat a little ball of raw hamburger if I rubbed the hamburger against a live mouse's fur first. I think garters will also eat goldfish, and it's fun to watch it "fish" from a small dish, dipping its head into the water. I miss having more snakes around here - fewer and fewer as it gets built up.

Anyone know if there is a way to discourage the presence of copperheads (this thread reminded me of when I found a baby copperhead sunning itself on my front lawn last year- and I live 7 minutes from uptown Charlotte) but keep garters around? I may not like snakes but I know garters are a good thing!

For keeping the garter, I might suggest instead releasing it and getting a captive bred snake instead.

If you keep it you can get minnows and chop them up to feed him while he's still small, they seem to like it as a treat and some eat nothing else. When bigger you can just put the fish in a water bowl and they will eat them out of the bowl. They also eat slugs and earthworms.

I haven't seen any garters around here since I moved here 3 years ago. We have a resident black racer though that is ornery as a, well a snake. LOL. I like having him around but would prefer another type of colubrid, one not so mean.

Thanks for all the info. I hope it eats something soon. We have given it a worm or two but have yet to see it eat anything. Maybe we should try fish. I have been told to get feeder guppies because minnows are not that great for them. I'm sure they eat them in the wild. I have also been told to try and get them to eat pinky parts(newborn mice parts, UGH! the things moma's have to do!). They say it is better for the snake to get them to eat mice(thank God garters eat dead prey too!). Thanks again! Godbless, Donna&the boys!

If you can get him to eat dead food, I would suggest liver baby food, rolled into tiny pellets. When we force-fed (not recommended for a wild snake - release it instead), we used a mix of liver baby food, vitamin powder and powdered milk. (Don't even try the force-feed cuz it involves long tubing, a syringe and getting the tube down to the stomach instead of the lung - not fun for you or the snake). Any vet office will sell you a can of catfood - I forget the name - that is meant for cats that are sick and don't want to eat. It is high in liver and calories and smells very, very rich - so the snake might go for that. I would say that either of these might work as well or better than your having to dissect a pinkie mouse. My understanding is that eating a whole animal is beneficial mostly for calcium.

just out of curiousity, what makes the black racer mean?/ How can you tell??

i was wondering the same. we had one that got caught in the pond netting- in about 10 places, and had it wrapped up in his jaws/teeth. when i cut him free- working from his tail up, he did really well. he was anxious to get going naturally, but not once didi he try to bite me. same thing happened to a hognose last year and it was so relaxed as i freed it it was amazing. in fact, he tried to get himself tangled again, but i took him to the back so he wouldn't. the only mean tempered snake i've seen was a huge redbellied water snake that i ran across. it wouldn't stop striking, and was about 6' and as big around as my forearm. i ran it off. but a smaller baby one had been a mascot of sorts around our top pond and was sweet as can be for a few months before that. after running into the big mean one, we scared away the little one since we realized how big he'd eventually get (didn't want him eating our fish). i was going to relocate him to the swamp out back, but once we tried to catch him he skedaddled on his own. it was if he knew he was no longer so welcome. our neighbor is a herpetologist, so we get to see all sorts of cool stuff. he showed us a preggo copperhead and a few weeks later, her babies. they were a little strike happy, but pretty calm for the most part, as was she. they just look downright mean, though, if you look at their faces. he relocated her to an uninhabited/unused park area. sankes in general are uber cool. always trying to convince my other neighbor to call us first before he drags out the shotgun or shovel, but so far no luck.

Sorry for the late reply. Hardscaping while I wait for the weather to cooperate.

I've heard that the racers can be striky but thought this one might be okay since he was around so often. Actually to be honest I thought it was a black rat until I shared a picture with some friends. He made his way under my neighbors car and she was getting ready to leave so I used my hook to reach him and pull him out and as soon as I had his back half in my hand he started striking repeatedly. He didn't get scared off though because he stuck around quite often after that.

No, normally I'd never really say any snake is mean. They are snakes and they follow their natural response. But, snakes in your yard are not typically used to being picked up and handled. I have 3 boas, two can be picked up anytime of the day and tolerate the handling any time without any timidness. The other one needs a lot more patience to handle and will probably never handle as easily as the others. They just can't all be expected to handle the same.

What a great picture!!!! I am always getting after the kids at BB who want to KILL any snakes we come across. Jeesh. They think I am a nut for talking to the anoles and skinks, and toads and frogs, and hummingbirds and butterflies, oh my! Can't wait for Spring! Heather, my son, who is 7, thinks your son "rocks," by the way.

Whoops! Your daughter rocks, Heather, not your son. Please, no offense intended!

i talk to anoles, too. :) in fact, we- me & the kids- put them and green tree frogs in the cool greenhouse for the winter to help with bugs. don't know that it's worked, but it is fun looking for them. the big male likes to sun on my bird's perch, and he likes to flirt with me, bobbing his provocative throat pouch at me so i'll be impressed. i bob back at him and tell him he's handsome.

hb- i can't say that i'm too surprised the racer was striking under those circumstances. i think i'd try to bite, too. lol. glad he didn't take off. i haven't seen ours around since he got in the net, but didn't see him before that either, so no biggie. we sight a big king snake once or twice a summer- i think it's probably the same one we've been seeing for a number of years.

we kept a couple rough green snakes as pets for a summer in our terrarium with some anoles and skinks, and they were so cool. they hung out and curled up into knots together- the thing that surprised me most- and were like living sculptures. the anoles got used to them within a day or 2. they were also complete pigs, which is part of why we let them go, fat & sassy, ready for fall. when we released them, they hung out in the same tree for a couple of days- i guess they thought it was a big cage. we got some good pix of them there. my kids and i wouldn't mind having another snake, but i don't want anything that eats furry things, which eliminates most of them, unfortunately.

as an aside, i haven't found a single garter snake in the 13 years we've lived here. lots of other kinds, but no garters. i thought they were ubiquitous. probably one of the coolest was the ultra tame milk snake we found one day. gorgeous markings! worm snakes are cool, too. tam

Thanks Amy - I'll tell her she rocks.

My younger daughter will pick up anything (and talk to them) bees, snakes, frogs, spiders, roaches, so on and so forth. Our best one was stopping in our neighborhood for a black racer that was in the road sunning. I didn't want anyone to run it over, so I sent the girls out to shoo it into the woods. My younger daughter went to pick up a stick (the smart thing) while my older one decided to use her shoe. Well, lo and behold, he started striking repeatedly. She screamed and took off back to the van while my youngest gently prodded him with the stick out of the street. It was pitiful as it scared my oldest to death and she got lectured by the younger one (they're 5 1/2 years apart) for not approaching carefully.

Heather

Heather - your youngest sounds like my kind of girl - except I don't think I would pick up a bee. I love reptiles and frogs. It drives me nuts when people want to kill any snake they see. We have a bearded dragon and a box turtle. I've also got a tub full of tropical roaches that I keep to feed the beardie. My daughter wants a corn snake, but we don't have anywhere left to put one! The beardie is about the best pet I've had other than dogs. He has so much personality.

What is the best way to tell the difference in a black racer and a black rat? I've looked at pictures of both, but then when I see them in the yard, I just don't know. I *think* what we have here are black rats. I've never in my life seen a live garter snake in the wild, although I did find a dead one on the road once.
Dana

I honestly don't know how to tell them apart. I only know if it acts aggressive, it's typically a racer.

The bees aren't bad to handle if you know which ones are least likely to sting (at least according to my daughter). She'll put a little bit of something sugary on her fingers and they'll climb on to lick it off. Or, she walks around the yard petting the bumble bees on their backs. I can't say I'd personally attempt this, but I don't discourage her. She has been stung a few times but her response is, "I must have scared it".

I was the kid who ran from any bee flailing my arms - though I don't anymore.

Heather

dana- we had garters everywhere in Pa, where i grew up, but i've yet to find one here. i know they're around the area, but i guess they skipped our house. i thought racers were a shinier glossy black and slimmer, but now i'll have to try and look it up, out of curiousity.

my kids do the same with bees, and will pick up spiders as well. yeah- they know about black widows and recluses- i'm talking about wolf and trapdoors- or most any other for that matter. they get bitten sometimes, but shrug it off. i will rescue bees when i see them drowning with my bare hands and haven't been stung yet. the kids would make a pet of everything if i'd let them- but we have too many already!

when she was little, my daughter would play with millipedes, getting some of the small ones and large black and yellows, and make a 'family'. she doesn't mess with them now she's 9, but it was very cute when she was 3. she adopted snails a few times, too- as i did when i was a young 'un. we have box turtles, too, and both kids will feed them about anything. i grew up handling and making pets of all sorts of stuff -caterpillars, snakes, frogs, turtles, and memorably, one time a batch of salamanders that got loose in the basement that my mom never quite forgave me for- so i guess the apple didn't fall far. lol.