Garter Snake
The most widespread snake in North America, and one of the few still active in cold weather. It bears live young and stays small enough for one hand.
Overview
The common garter snake is the most widespread snake in North America, from Florida to coastal Quebec and west to British Columbia, and it is one of very few day active snakes commonly kept. ADW gives 46 to 137 cm, averaging 88 cm.
It is also one of the few animals that can eat toads and newts with strong chemical defences, which is a genuinely unusual piece of biology and the reason garter snakes thrive where other snakes cannot.
Temperament
Fast, alert and busy, and completely unlike the sit still snakes on this shelf. A garter snake is active in daylight, which makes it far more interesting to watch and far more likely to be out of the enclosure the moment there is a gap.
When frightened they writhe and release a foul smelling musk, and will urinate on whoever is holding them. It is harmless, it washes off, and it usually stops once an animal is used to being handled.
Care and grooming
Fish and earthworms rather than rodents, which makes them cheap to feed and awkward if you dislike keeping worms. Fish fed exclusively can cause a thiamine deficiency, so variety matters more here than with a rodent eater.
70 to 85 F across a gradient, 40 to 60 percent humidity, and a water bowl large enough to soak in. They are ovoviviparous, giving birth to 10 to 40 live young after two or three months, occasionally as many as 80.
Living and exercise
A 20 gallon long enclosure for an adult, furnished with cover, and escape proof in a way that a slower snake's enclosure does not need to be. Garter snakes find gaps.
In the wild they hibernate from late October to early spring and often do it communally, gathering in numbers to hold a minimum body temperature. Captives do not need that cycle unless they are being bred, in which case it is the thing that triggers breeding.
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