Garter snakes and generating heat...

[adamanteus]

but what about when they eat??? won't all of the energy that they are taking in and using on digestion generate heat???

Basically, no.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

no. reptiles do not use food energy to generate heat like we do. that is why they do not need to eat every day like us, because where as MOST of our food energy goes to keeping our bodies a stable temperature, they do not need any energy for that because they allow mother nature do it for them. It takes an unbeleiveable amount of energy to keep warm blooded animals, well, warm! That is why mammals and birds eat multiple times in the same day, where as fish, insects, reptiles and amphibians can easily go days without flinching.

As for garters generating body heat, I would say nope. It's a nice idea, and may make a good project topic, but I think you will find that maybe he felt warm because your hands were possibly, slightly chilled? I have had that happen before. By curling up when alone, and grouping up together as we all notice they like to do, they most likely HOLD heat for a little longer, (and that's probably why we lift up boards outside and find three of them all on top of one another under a huge board) but unless they are vibrating their muscles like some pythons do to incubate their eggs, they are not generating any heat. I can't see how snakes generating body heat would go scientifically un-noticed for this long. And even if they were vibrating their muscles, I could not see that amounting to any noticeable factor in such a small snake.

I will agree with james, that garters remain active at much colder temperatures than some other snakes. But I will say that the same is also true for both cornsnakes and certain kingsnakes. It probably a "it's in their blood" type of thing. Most garters come from areas that experience frigid winters, and then spring and fall temperatures that are ALL over the place... warm then hot then cool then cold and all over again, sometimes within the same week! Most pythons and boas, not so much. Many of them come from places where it's at least semi-warm, all of the time, and tehrefore, are not able to tolerate cooler temps like their hard-headed colubrid friends.