He notes that the snake appeared to be inebriated after it finished swallowing the newt, acting very sluggish. Typically these snakes eat earthworms, small fish and amphibians, but they are known to also take small mammals and birds.
This snake does not lay eggs. In late July or August, 3 — 18 young are live-born. Common garter snakes have been known to bear up to 85 young in one birthing! While garters are relatively harmless , if you pick one up, it may try to defend itself with a bite — a relatively harmless bite, but a nip nonetheless. It will also struggle and emit a foul smell from its anal gland. Still, in the world of snakes, the garter is among the world's most benign snakes. They were thought until the early s to be non-venomous, but they do, in fact, produce a neurotoxic venom , though the small amount and mildness ensures that it cannot kill, or even harm, a human being.
In many areas, garters are the most common snake in the neighborhood. They range in length from Generally, the stripes on the back of the slithering bodies of these small to medium-sized snakes are gray, brown, black or olive in color. A few have dark spots.
But a quick search will show that there are 35 species of garter snake belonging to the genus Thamnophis , so they come in many different colors and patterns. Garter snakes are great for the garden as well. They are shy and will avoid human beings and pets at all costs, living peacefully in harmony with you and your family.
Garters are highly active. You might see them both at night and during the day, but you may not know they are there, as they will slither away from you as quickly as they can. They eat all the pests that wreak havoc in your garden, subsisting on slugs, snails, insects, grasshoppers and small rodents. They also like to chow down on worms, frogs, salamanders, fish and tadpoles, hiding under boards, vegetation, in stone walls, under logs or among rocks in meadows, woodlands, marshes and along hills.
Generally speaking, garter snakes are reasonably easy to feed, and yet the biggest problem in garter snake care is providing them with a healthy diet. But what does a complete diet involve?
One problem is that the ideal prey item for most garter snakes is not really a viable option. Most adult garters feed preferentially on anurans, and in an ideal situation this would make up the bulk of their diets.
But there are lots of reasons not to, apart from the fact that many herpers may balk at using frogs as food items! Earthworms are a somewhat better bet, though there are some concerns about parasite transmission with them as well.
Worms collected from your garden will be eaten with particular enthusiasm, and nightcrawlers Lumbricus terrestris purchased at a bait store will also suffice. Be careful with nightcrawlers, which are big and muscular: be sure to cut them into small pieces when feeding them to small snakes. I once cut one in half and fed one to one of my baby eastern garters. What about fish?
But in several cases you have to be careful. But the big worry is an enzyme called thiaminase, which destroys vitamin B1 thiamin and causes thiamin deficiencies: if you feed your garter nothing but fish that contain thiaminase, this can kill your snake. During its first winter with me I fed it thawed bait minnows, which, it turned out, contained the thiaminase enzyme. The snake went into convulsions: it lost motor control and began thrashing around the cage.
There is some confusion in the hobby about which fish contains thiaminase. In fact, it just depends on the fish. The culprits seem to be oily fish, so whitebait and smelts are probably out. If ocean perch is fine, then other commercially-available whitefish, like catfish or snapper, are probably all right, too. Remember, fish fillet is an incomplete diet.
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