Is this a garter snake?

[prattypus]

Personally, I have a hard time understanding how that could be mistaken for a garter snake.[/QUOTE]

Some people just don't do snakes. At least it's not a gardener snake.

[guidofatherof5]

Thanks for taking the time to join the forum and seek our advice. Thanks for being concerned for that snake. As you can see we are passionate about snakes, especially garter snakes. Snakes as a rule are looked down upon and no snake is disdained more than the garter snake, even by other snake people. We on the other hand see their great worth.
I think that they could very easily be called the companion snake of the snake world. They are harmless, docile and curious about us. Many members post about how their snakes like to get out and hang with them. Once they trust us they truly trust us. Mine love to get involved in whatever I'm doing. Try cleaning a cage with them in it. You spend more time pushing them out of the way than cleaning. It's their home and they want to know what's going on.
Please keep us posted on the snake.

[ConcinusMan]

Yup. What he said ^^ I've handled many species of snakes and I have to say, N.Am garters are the sweetest among the snakes. Everything about their nature that we can relate to is there and it's the same kind of sweet nature that a smart puppy-dog would have. Only garters have the ability to recpricate (or communicate feelings) as far as I can tell, or at least they are the only ones that I can understand. Either way, the bond is there.

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, dishman123

[ConcinusMan]

Just for the record, a garter snake will usually have a stripe right down the middle of it's back. Not always, but usually. Ribbon snakes are very similar.

[Stefan-A]

Just for the record, a garter snake will usually have a stripe right down the middle of it's back. Not always, but usually. Ribbon snakes are very similar.

Just for the record, ribbon snakes ARE garter snakes.

[ConcinusMan]

Oh no. They are thamnophis. IF you choose to call all thamnophis "garter snakes" then yes.

There has always been a distinction between the two, for me, as long as I can remember. Really though, the difference is as little as that between a yam and a sweet potato.

[Stefan-A]

Oh no. They are thamnophis. IF you choose to call all thamnophis "garter snakes" then yes.

Oh yes. And yes, that is the definition of "garter snake".

[ConcinusMan]

"Tomaytoe", "tomahtoe". All texts I read while a youngster said Thamnophis - "Garter AND ribbon snakes" . If they were all garters, then why the "and" ?

The point I was trying to make is that if it doesn't have a stripe down the middle, and usually the sides too, it's probably NOT a garter snake, within the range of the black rat snake.

[Stefan-A]

"Tomaytoe", "tomahtoe". All texts I read while a youngster said Thamnophis - "Garter AND ribbon snakes" . If they were all garters, then why the "and" ?

Because people are easily confused. They'd walk around in book stores and libraries aimlessly looking for books about ribbon snakes if the books didn't have that in the title.

As for good reasons to separate Thamnophis into garters and ribbons, there are none. Here's a consensus tree to show why: