New litter of Easterns (WC)

[wxknight]

Does anyone know the laws in Massachusetts for wild caught/captive raised garter? Are they illegal to trade? Just wondering because I plan on giving a few away. If it's not legal I'll probably just give them away if anyone interested. If that isn't a possibility I'll just return the ones I don't keep to the wild.

[guidofatherof5]

Don't know but I'll make a call tomorrow to find out for you.

I did find this:
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/Gener...r131/Section23

[wxknight]

Thanks. Laws always seem very confusing and ambiguous to me hah. It's not illegal to kill garter snakes, and I read you can be in possession of two wild snakes at a time. I have 12 captive raised snakes. I wonder if that counts as wild caught still. There was also some emphasis on if wild populations are affected. I'm not too worried about that because garters are a dime a dozen in these parts and I kept about 10% of the litter so I don't think will have much impact on wild populations. If it's legal to kill them I don't see the harm in selling a couple, but who knows.

[Light of Dae]

Garter Snake Forum - Garter Caresheet

Have you read the caresheet yet? It has wonderful suggestions on better substrate then sandy dirt.... As well as some food suggestions other then parasite filled tadpoles...

Try chopping the worms smaller to avoid food fights as well. food fights as cute as they can be can be damaging to the snakes mouth and should try to be avoided. As far as substrate goes I love newspaper pellets n paper towel....

Very cute little ones.

[guidofatherof5]

I guess it would help if I put this in the correct thread.

Just got off the photo with Mr. Mirick. According to him you may keep 2 of any unprotected snakes species in MA. You may give away or release any babies from those snakes. He hopes they would be released in the area the parent came from. Selling is a whole other ball game as that requires a permit. He said if you have any other questions feel free to contact him.
Peter Mirick 508-389-6300 MA Fish and Wildlife

[wxknight]

Thanks for the input guys. As far as selling them seems like it's complicated so I'll probably hang on to all 12 for a few months then keep the best 4 or 5. Then perhaps I'll give 2 or 3 away and keep 2. I'll keep you guys posted on how their colors develop and if anyone on here wants 1 or 2 feel free to ask. As far as the ones I already released (about 70-80 of them) I scattered them about a 50 yard radius of where I found the parent snakes, which were all found very close to each other.

I've kept garters and other species of snakes for years but I reread the care sheet cause I needed a refresher. I just had them in a bit of dirt while they are small but I'm gonna switch to paper towels, and when they are bigger maybe some reptile mulch or aspen. Right now I feel I'd never be able to find them in any deep substrate so paper towels will be good while they are small. I no longer feed them in the tank, I put them in an empty Tupperware container a few at a time to keep the food fights at bay.

I'll post a couple pics in a bit.

[wxknight]

Here's some pics. Tried to show a bit of the contrast in colors and patterns. Got one or two real dark ones and a couple nearly stripe-less ones.

q1.jpgq2.jpgq3.jpgq4.jpg

[guidofatherof5]

Nice looking little scrubs.

[wxknight]

Thanks. The one on the left in the last pic almost looks akin to a dekays snake cause of the thick vague stripe. I'm hoping that dark one keeps getting darker and maybe becomes malanistic. I know there are populations of melanistic ones in parts of eastern Mass, but I think those might be born all black. Time will tell. I think next photo shoot I'll take a picture of each snake individually and make a side by side comparison of them.

[wxknight]

Ok here they all are, numbered. lol.all all.jpg