Garter ID

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Lol! I meant up north for me! I live in south carolina. I have seen similiar looking animals from all three states. I have also seen similar animals from new york.

lol, i'm not arguing at all with you blue but had to chuckle with your reference to "eastern from up north"... "indiana, ohio, pennsylvannia" those are all good southern herp'n places for a lot of us !

I've herped wisconsin, ohio and indiana and didn't come across that pattern, but did see some nice red's in a missouri specimen.

When compared to the pictured indiana animal it almost looks like the op's snake was bred for reduced pattern.

Ian

[BLUESIRTALIS]

I dream of herping Wisconsin someday as they have some of the nicest looking eastern garters!

[Zdravko092368]

Bluesiritalis I wonder if there are Easterns that look like this here in Ontario. I am so used to seeing very dark black snakes with yellow lines, not this olive green background and black checker pattern. I will have to keep an eye out next summer and photograph the local Garters. There is a good photo on Herptrips.com where an Eastern that looks like my snake was photographed in New Jersey, third page of the New Jersey instalment I believe. That's a great website either way, lots of photos and info there.

Mike

There definitely are those easterns in Ontario as i've seen them before. Ontario has nearly every type of eastern garter I can think of, i've found brown, black, blue phase, light green head, olive, silver phase, albino, orange belly, melanistic and flame all this year in Ontario.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

I would say you probably have some locales that have that same look. Eastern garters are just so variable. I think you should get a flame to breed to her.

Ok I am a bit confused, who's snake are we talking about now?
Lora your snake does resemble mine, other than the fact that it's albino. Has yours gotten more red with age?
The ventral scales on my snake are a solid olive greenish colour, no black. I tried to count the labial scales and, well, that's not going to happen. The female is still quite small so it's just too hard to see, maybe a photo will help. The other snake is only half the size of the one I am assuming is a female and they were sold as a pair. Next time I take photos I will try to get some better diagnostic ones, the vent and tail plus a macro of the head in profile.

Bluesiritalis I wonder if there are Easterns that look like this here in Ontario. I am so used to seeing very dark black snakes with yellow lines, not this olive green background and black checker pattern. I will have to keep an eye out next summer and photograph the local Garters. There is a good photo on Herptrips.com where an Eastern that looks like my snake was photographed in New Jersey, third page of the New Jersey instalment I believe. That's a great website either way, lots of photos and info there.

I was really hoping on getting a high red Eastern to make a small group, still worried that my two are siblings and I don't really want them breeding if that's the case. I guess I should wait until I have a definite ID before I go looking for a mate. I will work on getting better photos. The larger of the two is calming down but I still like to keep handling to a minimum unless I am going to be offering food as a reward. The smaller of the two is flightily and I don't want to stress it out.

Mike

[MDahms]

That was my plan, either some time this winter or the spring. I am torn between a high red or an orange, might have to get one of each.

Mike

[d_virginiana]

might have to get one of each.

This is how the addiction starts.

[Zdravko092368]

Let the addiction begin lol. Beware, there's no escape once you're converted.