She's a beauty. I say she because that is a female. She looks an awful lot like elegans but you're on the east coast so i don't think so.

Quote Originally Posted by gregmonsta View Post
I would consider a different substrate. You don't know what beasties and possible mould problems these leaves could contain.
Definitely. That's a poor choice. I always used large pine shavings, but I had to make sure I take them out of their enclosure for feeding. Don't want them swallowing that stuff. My garters were so large after they were 6 or 7 years old, and so tame, they didn't care about a place to hide. They would greet me when I walk in the room.

I used a Plexiglass box, fairly low profile but large area. Heating pad and low wattage basking light on one side, water bowl and full spectrum flourescent on the other. That gave them about 90 degrees on one end, 70 on the other. They seemed happy. In 21 years, they grew from about 10 inches long to 3 1/2 feet.