Wild Caught Western Terrestrial

[jitami]

Not what I was looking for, but not bad...
Alan's Garter Snakes - Maintenance of Garter Snakes

ok, this is bugging me now...

[kurtnagel]

Not what I was looking for, but not bad...
Alan's Garter Snakes - Maintenance of Garter Snakes

ok, this is bugging me now...

Tami,

No problem!

I guess my initial (and beginner) take looking at the above pictures and description is that with the very gradual and uniform taper on this one, it appears to be female. But, that is without a detailed examination.

I will make a closer examination and post some pictures once she has fed and I am able to handle her. Hopefully then the more experienced of you can make the call!

Kurt

[Loren]

Hi, and welcome. As already said, a 20 long will be easier to give a good temp gradiet,(plus the snake will enjoy the room) but I have gone a few routes with smaller tanks- either an undertank heater on one end (they are better off with a thermostat- some of them get really hot), or flexwatt heat tape (has to be thermostatically controlled) or by pointing a 40 watt heat lamp at the outside of one end of the tank. I do this on 5 gallon tanks for small desert snakes like shovelnose and ground snakes, it gives me a temp gradient of over 100 deg. f. down to room temp in a 16" long tank.
If using a heat lamp over a 10 g, be very careful to check temps.
Ge makes a 30 watt flood bulb in an r20 size that throws a pretty tight heat pattern(walmart has them). You could try one of them over one end of a 10 gal and see what temps you get.
Ultimately, you will be better off with a 20L though.