{"id":320,"date":"2017-10-23T23:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/?p=320"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:22:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:22:40","slug":"23-october-2017-randall-the-wandering-garter-snake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/2017\/10\/23\/23-october-2017-randall-the-wandering-garter-snake\/","title":{"rendered":"23 October 2017 | Randall the Wandering Garter Snake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Three months ago, we found a garter snake roaming the rose bushes in front of our house. I was really surprised. It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve seen one in the wild, but I can only recall ever seeing them near creeks and other healthy water sources. With all the cats and cars around in town, I figured he was a really lucky critter. He musked when I first picked him up, but never bit, and that was the only time he ever tried to skunk me or anyone else.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First sighting beneath our rose bushes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Doing a little research after that, I ID\u2019d him as a Wandering Garter Snake \u2014 Thamnophis elegans vagrans<\/em>. He\u2019s about 24 inches long and I\u2019m guessing male because the tail after the cloaca doesn\u2019t quite seem to taper for about an inch or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t had a pet garter since I was a kid and had forgotten how awesome they are. He\u2019s just an exceptionally beautiful snake. Bright eyed with a slight olive green tint up top and pastel bluish green gastrosteges beneath\u2014and glossy like a moving ceramic sculpture. We handle him regularly and he is completely comfortable with that\u2014always on the move, exploring and flicking, never snippy or skittish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He spent the first few weeks in a small 7-ish gallon tank, but is now set up in a better 20 gallon tank with trimmings to hopefully make it as pleasant for him to live in as it is for us to watch. We\u2019ve had friends through the years that have had milk snakes, boas and kings, but I haven\u2019t yet seen any that compare to watching a garter just constantly moving and grooving, stretching and reaching around their environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We have some extra faux-vine leaves and a climbing rock that we bring out and set on the table a couple times a week to let him crawl around and explore different layouts. Sometimes one of us will sit there and play or work on the laptop while he takes an extended tour. That\u2019s where I had been feeding him too\u2014big earthworm on a paper towel in the middle of a temporary table garden. A little vitamin dusting on the worm once every couple weeks. He was ravenous the first couple months and at times would scarf his meal before I even had a chance to put him down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He shed twice in the first two months, but what I feared has now happened. He stopped eating in September, and has gone into enhanced exploration mode, so I figure he\u2019s hunting for a good brumation spot. I\u2019m afraid he\u2019ll lose too much weight if I try to avoid brumating until it\u2019s too late. So I picked up a thermostat and separate heat mat to set him up in the smaller tank, out in the garage for I guess a couple months to reset the belly clock.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Randall checking out the freshly assembled brumation hideout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m really afraid we could lose him to that process. But definitely don\u2019t want him starving himself at higher metabolism in our indoor temperatures either. I wish I could be confident that after a couple months of not eating and warm temperatures I could be sure he\u2019d figure it out and start chowing down again\u2026but as far as I know, he could get sick and die of malnutrition first. So I guess I\u2019m giving brumation a shot. The cage is covered in foil to keep it dark, thermostat programmed for 50 degrees F, water dish and cover added, and snake in residence. We\u2019re starting with two or three days indoors to start the dark. Then out to the garage for cooler temps. We\u2019re going to miss watching him roam and flounce around for a couple months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Three months ago, we found a garter snake roaming the rose bushes in front of our house. I was really surprised. It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve seen one in the wild, but I can only recall ever seeing them near creeks and other healthy water sources. With all the cats and cars around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[29,31,28,30],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animals","tag-garter","tag-herpetology","tag-snake","tag-thamnophis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}