Greetings from Massachusetts.

[GaiusIuliusTabernarius]

Hello, I'm a 22 year old bio major for Chelsea MA, I've always loved snakes and reptiles in general and a few days ago I decided it was about time I got myself one for a pet. I opted for a garter snake for a few reasons. One, familiarity, when I was little I used to catch them in my yard and while I could never keep them I loved playing with them. Two, I won't have to buy it, I see them all the time in my yard so all I have to do is keep the next one I find. Three, my mother is deathly afraid of snakes so a smaller variety is less likely to give her a stroke.

Since my past experience with garters was rather tragic, (I tried to keep them in containers outside but they would always die on me.) I wanted to make sure to do my homework before attempting to keep another one as a pet. So that's essentially how I found myself here, I'm looking forward to learning from your experiences and possibly contributing myself in some small way. I have a lot of other interests, as you might guess from my sn and my profile pic I'm very interested in the roman empire and ancient civilizations in general, (I already have an idea what I'm going to name my snake when I catch him or her, Tiamat for a girl, Quetzalcoatl for a boy.) I don't really listen to much music, (shocking I know, given my age) but I do like other stereotypical internet young person things, (anime, southpark, adultswim, ect.)

I'm also a semi political junky, history nut, science nut, and generally interested in obscure or controversial subjects that I'm prudent enough not to bring up without prompting.

Hope that wasn't too long or descriptive of a hello, anyway, nice to be here.

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard.

[guidofatherof5]

Nice to have you on the forum. The flooding State of Iowa welcomes you.
Garter snakes are awesome.
Here's a link to the care sheet we have.
Garter Snake Care Sheet - Caresheets

[ssssnakeluvr]

welcome to the forum

[GaiusIuliusTabernarius]

Thanks everyone, and in proper pre register lurking form, I had already read the care sheet, along with several threads in the habitat and husbandry section. I found the information quite useful in demystifying the claims made by the lady at petco. She wanted to sell me all kinds of things... I managed to keep my budget below 50 dollars. I got aspen wood substrate, a new mesh lid for my old 5 gallon aquarium, reptile vitamin supplement spray, and a heating pad for one side of the tank. The rest of it is made up of rocks, fake leaves from old decorations, and a small glass bowl for water, (all things I had lying around the house.)

Now all I need is the snake. I set two pieces of plywood out on my lawn, so with any luck I'll find a few curled up under there tomorrow morning.

[kibakiba]

Welcome to the forum! I hope you enjoy your stay. Garters are an addiction, a good one at that. They are very fun little snakes, and they are the best snake in the world imo.

My mom is also afraid of snakes and other large reptiles (and small but fast ones) She let me keep my oldest snake (he's probably 4-5 years old now, had him for 3 years) when he was a year or two old. He was about 9 inches long, so she wasn't too worried . Now, I have 9 snakes, 12 if you count the 3 I'm giving to a close friend.

A tip for a mother who is afraid of snakes... Start small... The younger the snake, the cuter and less harmful it seems. Maybe your mom will grow to love it as it gets larger and larger. That's how it worked with Snakey.

[drache]

welcome to the forum, Gaius

[infernalis]

[PINJOHN]

hi and welcome from sunny liverpool

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Hello there! "reptile vitamin supplement spray"... what is this? It sounds like one of those useless products that is actually entirely unnecessary. I haven't heard of them coming in sprays.. and I bet it has a rather short shelf life... if I were you I'd take it back and opt for herptivite... it's a powder supplement... good stuff!