No garters...

[Kali]

Hi there,
I got this sweet email today wishing me a happy birthday from the garter snake forum. And I remembered I never updated this thread.

Apparantly I am allowed to keep a tesselate! Yay!
Laws here are so confusing and not always logical. I was told that in this part of Belgium, the only Natrix I cannot keep is Natrix natrix. It might be different in the southern part, as they have other laws. (For as small as we are, we are a federal state...)
The official range of tesselata might cross the borders here and there, but it's not considered to be a local species so there you go.

He has been eating very well. Live fish at first, dead fish after that, and this week he ate a fish scented fuzzy mouse. I heard that mice are a good food for them too, is that correct? It would be easier for me, as I breed my own mice for the other snakes, but if he needs stuff that's in fish and not in mice, I'll have to keep providing him fish of course. Just want to make sure here that I'm treating my little guy well here
Thanks for any answers!

[Stefan-A]

He has been eating very well. Live fish at first, dead fish after that, and this week he ate a fish scented fuzzy mouse. I heard that mice are a good food for them too, is that correct? It would be easier for me, as I breed my own mice for the other snakes, but if he needs stuff that's in fish and not in mice, I'll have to keep providing him fish of course. Just want to make sure here that I'm treating my little guy well here
Thanks for any answers!

I'd stick to (frozen/thawed) fish, but that's just how I would do it. I am suspicious when it comes to feeding animals things that they wouldn't normally eat. Natrix natrix would be a bit different, because rodents do make up a part of their diet, but N. tessellata and N. maura are primarily and almost exclusively fish eaters.