Proper care??

[garter newbie]

I have been reading a lot about garter care and housing. Just wanted to make sure that I'm doing the right things since this is my first experience with keeping a snake and mine isn't eating.
Here's my story:
As I mentioned in my intro, my son and I found a garter in our yard, hiding under the grass, on 11/01/06 in Philadelphia, PA. The temperature outside has been variable lately - generally anywhere from 50's to low 70's by day and 50's to mid-30's at night. I have no idea what type or how old it is. The snake is approx. 13 inches long and 1 cm diameter. It is grayish brown with black diamond spots. At first we placed it in a dry plastic "planet frog" habitat that I had on hand so my son could show his friend. At that point, we weren't sure we were going to keep it as a pet. I placed a plastic plant saucer of water in there and tried to feed it small worms I harvested from our yard. I never witnessed the snake eating them so not sure it did. This past Sunday, we went to the pet store and purchased a 10-gallon tank, aspen bedding, grapevine branch, thermometer and humitity gauge, under tank heater, half log, and water bowl. I also picked up some rosy red minnows and frozen pinkies. I can't say the snake has been very active (although I don't really know what's normal) and still have not seen it eat anything yet. I've continued to try feeding small worms (wiggling in front of the snake) as well as a minnow (placed live in a jar lid w/ water), and two quarter pieces of defrosted pinkie (tried wiggling in front of it as well as left it sit in the cage). The temp in the cage is 75 F on the heated side (I have the gauge attached at the top of the cage not at the bottom were the heat mat is though) and the humitity is at @ 67. I keep the room temp anywhere from 66 - 70F. Since yesterday it's been hiding under some fallen leaves I have in the middle part of the cage at the edge of where the heat mat is. I think that covers everything. Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Chrissy

[Thamnophis]

Chrissy, does it look like this snake? Do you have a picture?

[garter newbie]

Yeah, it looks pretty much like that except it doesn't really have the black markings on it's head. I just took a picture if it - let me see if I can get the image posted.

Chrissy

[Thamnophis]

If you don't succes in posting the picture, you can mail it to me. Than I will put it online and post it here.

[abcat1993]

I am no expert but what you have should be good. You might have to wait awhile before it will eat, and probably longer to be able to see it eat. Just give it some time to get used to it's environment and recover from hibertation (assuming it was starting to go into it).
Also, is ~ 67% humidity right? my tank is at anywere from 35-60%.
And what type of garter is that you posted?

[garter newbie]

That's the picture of it there as my avatar. Is that good enough?

[Cazador]

It's really tough to see detail in the avatar since the file size is so small.

[garter newbie]

Originally Posted by Cazador

It's really tough to see detail in the avatar since the file size is so small.

I figured that much. Can someone advise me on how to insert a picture from my computer? When I click on the "insert image" icon above it asks me to enter the URL of the image .

[ssssnakeluvr]

you want no humidity in the cage if its a garter....garters have problems with humidity. It's hard to see the pic there...

[abcat1993]

I thought they had problems with high humidity, not lowish humidity