this is bad......

[Snake lover 3-25]

yes.... i have to keep them at least until the field is mown.... that tractor has already killed 2 snakes in the past few hours..... and it almost had a third....... and possibly a fith as well.... thankfully..... i caught them just seconds b4 they slithered under the wheel...... one of the 5 caught in the last 2 days was injured by the tractor.... when i caught it it appeared to have been paralized about halfway down it's body..... but now it seems fine..... moving normally.... and i think it may have just been an over reaction from him twards his own injury..... but out of the 4 adults caught ALL of them are very thin..... but i will take your advise and release all of them once the field is cleared...... (only happens every 2 years) unf..... i came too late to save a baby..... and the little guy seems to have been VERY blue..... almost puget colored..... may have been a morph but i will be back from the 31 i have now down to 4 soon...... i also rescued 12 mantids..... that tractor moves so fast..... too many are just not fast enough to escape......

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

i came too late to save a baby..... and the little guy seems to have been VERY blue..... almost puget colored..... may have been a morph but i will be back from the 31 i have now down to 4 soon...... i also rescued 12 mantids

I found two dead garters in the mountains, both were blue like a puget. They start to turn blue after they have died.

You must release those mantids ASAP.... you actually have not rescued them, but instead, you are interfering with the end of their life cycle. If you want to see more mantids again next year, best to free those guys... they only have at most another month and a half before they die off, and now is the time when they mate and the females lay their egg sacs soon. Even if brought inside, a mantis will die before november is finished.

Shanley,

Snakes have been around for a long time before us, they are putting up with us now, and they will be here for a long time after us. Intervening will not help, if anything, you will doom them because they need to be on their way to their dens and delaying them will surely call for death. Females are always thin this time of year, they have had their babies and so of course they are down on their weight. They will eat what they can this month and some of next before they go into hibernation, and next spring is when they will really be able to bulk back up. What you are trying to justify as a rescue, is actually unbeknownst to you, dooming your local population...

I know for a fact from reading other threads that you tend to overfeed, and actually, I think you are interpereting average weighted garters that you find outside to be skinny when in reality, they are fine and you think they need to be fatter than they really should be. I remmber when you found Sooty, you said she was so thin she looked like she was going to die. I saw pictures of her right after you fed her, and she looked like an average female garter snake with a full tummy... possibly a little too full. I could tell by the picture that that snake was not underweight in the least. Even before being fed. Garters are naturally a long, thin snake, males especially, and females should always retain a slender appearance unless gravid. A female is overweight if she looks gravid all the time. the one with wrinkled skin probably has recently given birth, she will be fine. The best thing to do is to leave them be, this time of year is crucial for both older and young snakes as they scramble to bulk up before winter sets in. By catching them and stressing them out, you are taking time away that they could be spending preparing for winter. I know it's hard and I know you love them, but I think that you may love them too much in this case, just try to let them be on their way. We all love garters and we all hurt when we see one that doesn't make it, but we must remember that mother nature takes away, but she always gives back.