devante9901
New member
I am so excited! When I wasn't looking this morning, Kyle, my "rescued from winter" Butler's garter snake went and did a perfect shed! I was so worried he'd have trouble because we're having a cold snap in northern WI and the house is so dry even the people want to roll around in lotion. So yesterday morning I cranked the humidifier in the dining room where Kyle lives, and added a humidity box with damp moss, and his shed went well.
We've had him about a month. My husband found the snake in his auto shop, just as the November temp dropped, so we decided to keep him at least for the winter. I don't really care for removing animals from the wild, but sending him outdoors so late in the year didn't seem viable for his survival, either.
I would love to hear people's thoughts on if we can release him in the spring, or if we'll have ruined him for surviving in the wild by keeping him warm and fed for these cold months. (Last year we had snowfall till the end of May, for goodness sakes).
He's eating euro worms, 1 - 2 small ones approx every 2 - 3 days, supplemented with calcium powder once a month, and even ate a couple of guppies from Petco, although he doesn't seem to prefer those. I don't think he's big enough to eat nightcrawlers yet. (And yes, I found out about Red Wrigglers/compost worms being toxic to garters, and the worm guy I get worms from assured me that he doesn't breed red wrigglers because they don't keep well in the bait refrigerators).
I've read that training him to eat mice is better, nutritionally, but he probably wouldn't eat mice in the wild, so while I've offered pieces of fetal mice, I haven't worked so hard as to scent them with worm, and he has not eaten them.
Connecting with people who have experience with garter snakes for advice and support would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
~SM .0.0.1 Butler's garter snake
We've had him about a month. My husband found the snake in his auto shop, just as the November temp dropped, so we decided to keep him at least for the winter. I don't really care for removing animals from the wild, but sending him outdoors so late in the year didn't seem viable for his survival, either.
I would love to hear people's thoughts on if we can release him in the spring, or if we'll have ruined him for surviving in the wild by keeping him warm and fed for these cold months. (Last year we had snowfall till the end of May, for goodness sakes).
He's eating euro worms, 1 - 2 small ones approx every 2 - 3 days, supplemented with calcium powder once a month, and even ate a couple of guppies from Petco, although he doesn't seem to prefer those. I don't think he's big enough to eat nightcrawlers yet. (And yes, I found out about Red Wrigglers/compost worms being toxic to garters, and the worm guy I get worms from assured me that he doesn't breed red wrigglers because they don't keep well in the bait refrigerators).
I've read that training him to eat mice is better, nutritionally, but he probably wouldn't eat mice in the wild, so while I've offered pieces of fetal mice, I haven't worked so hard as to scent them with worm, and he has not eaten them.
Connecting with people who have experience with garter snakes for advice and support would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
~SM .0.0.1 Butler's garter snake
I don't really advocate for taking things from the wild either... 