Care Sheet for Garter Snakes and Ribbon SnakesAverage Rating Given To This Care Sheet Is 2.33 (1=lowest, 5=highest) Last Updated: 04/01/2006 |
Main Category: | Snakes |
Sub Category: | Garter Snakes and Ribbon Snakes |
Care Sheet Submitted By: | Igu@n@DoN |
Years Experience: | 3 to 5 Years |
Species: | Northwestern garter snake |
Other Species or Phases this Care Sheet May Cover: | browns, commons, ribbons |
Sexing and Characteristics: | Males seem to have a thicker tail and a skinnier neck, while female have thicker necks and skinnier tails. |
Mostly Active During: | Day |
Substrate and Water Needs: | Some of the best substrates are news paper, partially damp soil, or mulch, never cedar or pine. a large water dish should be provided because for one garters are kind of semi-aquatic |
Lighting and UVB: | Most garters don’t really need heat lamps or UVB but some sort of lamp would be good to create the effect of day and night. Most people don’t really care for light when it comes too wild caught snake but it does sort of matter. |
Temperatures and Humidity: | Best temps are around 80 to 85 in the day night maybe around 65-75. The cage/tank doesn’t need to be that moist but a humid hide will be great, all it really is i a hide box with some damp moss in it. |
Heating and Equipment: | A normal sized heating pad will be good because most snakes aren’t heliothermic, which means they need heat from above to digest. Garters and ribbons need heat from underneath to digest food. |
Caging Provided: | I provided a 15 gallon for my snake, it was pretty simple, two hide boxes, a large water dish, a few plants, and a rock and stick, my substrate was repti carpet. |
Diet: | Carnivorous |
Description of Diet: | Mine were mainly fed worms slugs and hunter minnows, mine weren’t big enough to eat mice yet. mice have the best nutrition values and don’t need to be supplemented but worms, slugs, and fish may need a bit of CP, gold fish are never a good food for the garter snakes, i went with hunter minnows and female feeding guppies. |
Supplements, Nutrition and Usage: | You may only need to feed the snake two to three times a week so once a week will be good when it comes to using CP(calcium powder). Many garters will readily take in crickets fed with high calcium food or sprinkled in calcium powder. |
Maintenance: | Clean the cage once a month and rinse it with a vinegar to kill the bacteria. |
Some Words on this Species: | Garters are great pets because they are practically free, fun, easy to handle, and don’t require alot, just a good owner who knows what he/she ids doing. |
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