Don's Garter Snakes

Another year ends

2011-12-26T17:48:00.000-08:00

Another year comes to an end....been kind of a crappy year. Lost a number of snakes, crappy litters that were stillborn or slugs. Whern I finally did have babies...not many were sold. We did have a lot of fun at the Wasatch Reptile Expo tho! Looking forward to a better year next year!!

Waiting

2011-04-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

We are playing the waiting game here.....waiting for snakes to pop, eggs to hatch...

Unfortunately our first leopard gecko egg that hatched didn't make it. =(

Was a cute little fella tho. Hopefully the other eggs do better.

First gravid snake of 2011

2011-03-09T20:40:00.000-08:00

This is Cariad, the thamnophis.com mascot. She is due anytime now. She bred in the fall surprisingly. I put the males in with the females in the fall and let them stay together during the winter brumation period. The male couldn't wait for spring! Looking forward to babies from her! She will produce double het albinos, Iowa and Nebraska albinos, plus orange phases on both albinos. Woo hoo!

new guy

2011-02-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

This is a male albino checkered garter. The picture doesn't do him justice. His background color is light green, the yellow is real bright, and he has some orange spots around his purple checkers. I need to get some better shots outside in natural light when it warms up. He is in with my girls now but I have seen no signs of breeding....may put him down for a month and see if he will breed.

New year

2011-02-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

Well, the new year is off and running. Most of my breeders are out and together. The only one I have seen breeding going on with is my red spotted garters. That doesn't mean anything tho....that's the only ones that I saw signs from last year, but had a number of others breed. My albino eastern is out now with the melanistic male from Joe Peck....hopefully they get busy!!

I am also working on some exciting new stuff for later in the year....hopefully it works out!! Be watching for new stuff later in the summer!!

Breeding

2011-01-19T17:16:00.000-08:00

I have started bringing out my girls for breeding. My male red spot garter is a stud...bred with the female he was in with within hours! He was put in with the other female a few days later...hope he gets busy! I am also receiving a female anery red spot this week. My male anery will be placed with her and hopefully they breed. It will be interesting to see how the anery gene works out. I also will be pairing my het albino plains with the het albino female, my red female, and the snow female. Should produce some nice babies!

Happy new year!

2011-01-09T16:54:00.000-08:00

The new year is started and I am waiting....next week some of my females will be coming out of brumation to start the breeding season!! I have a couple of females that will be left in brumation for a bit....I just received on a breeder loan a male melanistic eastern that is het for Schuett albino! I will be pairing him with my Schuett albino and then my orange female. Should produce some albinos! I also can't wait to see if my Puget Sound garters breed! Those snakes were so popular and soooo many people want them! I hope they each have a ton of babies!!

Wasatch Reptile Expo

2010-10-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

The 2010 Wasatch Reptile Expo was a blast!!!! Just a few photos of us setting up and working at the expo. Lots of fun! The Puget Sound garters were the hit of the expo! Would have sold a ton of babies (if I would have had them). Looking forward to next year's expo. Thanks a bunch for the help guys!

Reptile expo

2010-09-29T20:11:00.001-07:00

Only 2 more days til the expo!!!! Got cages cleaned, snakes will be fed Friday morning, and we will be setting up that afternoon!

Wasatch Reptile Expo

2010-09-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

The Wasatch Reptile Expo is coming next month. I will be having a booth there. I can't wait. I have a good number of garters that I will be hoping to sell. I will have a variety of plains garters, red sided garters, northwestern garters, and wandering garters. It will be lots of fun! Nikki is excited too! The expo is on Oct 2nd and 3rd at the Utah State Fairpark at 1000 W North Temple St. Bring a full wallet and buy my snakes ;)

Puget Sound garters

2010-08-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

Finally received some Puget Sound garters! The pics don't quite do the blue color justice. I got 3 females and 1 male. Beautiful snakes!! Looking forward to producing babies next year!

Exciting news!

2010-06-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

I received an email from a film company in England. They make shows for Animal Planet. They are filming a 3 part series on infestations. One of the infestations is in Rexburg Idaho. It's a house that has a garter snake den under it. Two families have moved out due to the snakes. They found me searching on the internet. They want me to bring up a bunch of garter snakes to use in filming this show!! Nikki will be going with me to help! WOO HOO!! The filming will probably done on July 7th, possibly also the 8th. I will get paid for my time and travel and will get credit as the "Snake Wrangler" in the show too! I am planning on getting a copy of the show too! I can't wait!!

And more babies!

2010-06-24T21:54:00.001-07:00

My red plains had her babies last week. She had 13 live and 1 stillborn. I was hoping for more babies, but these are really large for plains babies. These babies might develop the red color later, will have to see. I will be keeping a pair to breed later. The father carries the Iowa and Nebraska albino genes. Hopefully they will be passed to the babies. I will find out later.

Fun day at work II

2010-05-31T17:13:00.001-07:00

I got 2 snake calls in 1 day!!! And....found both! The first was a 3 1/2 foot red tail boa, found the owner and returned her safely. The 2nd was a 4 foot gopher snake. Huge female! She was released safely also.

Woo hoo pt 2!

2010-05-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

I finally had albino red sided babies!!! She had 27 total babies, 1 stillborn that died early on, 4 albinos (2 stillborn), and 22 double het albino (8 stillborn). I am soooo excited!!! Finally got albino reds!!! Sweet looking little snakes!!!!

More babies!

2010-05-10T09:35:00.001-07:00

My multiple het albino plains had her babies yesterday. This is the first litter I have produced with albinos!! She had 2 Iowa albinos and 2 Nebraska albinos! She had a total of 9 babies, but one died.

New pics

2010-05-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

Here's pics of a couple babies!! The 2 dark ones that weren't very active passed away. The rest seem to be doing real well.

First babies of 2010

2010-05-05T10:07:00.001-07:00

Oregon red spotted garter

These babies were born this morning! The girl had 14 live, 2 dead, and 1 slug. They are way cute! I am concerned tho for 3 of them...they are real dark and 2 aren't real active....

Baby Animal Days

2010-04-13T18:14:00.001-07:00

We went to the Baby Animal Days with Jim Dix and his Reptile Rescue. He is in the last picture. We had a great time showing all the reptiles. I wrestled with a 12 foot burmese python for a few. People made donations so they could get pictures taken. Was a great time, the kids had a blast!

Garter snake den

2010-04-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

I went with Nikki, Kelly, and Keith to the Baby Animal Days in Logan, Utah. We were with the Reptile Rescue doing a fair. I knew of a den site right there at the fair grounds. I took some pics of some of the snakes. The second snake is actually a hypermelanistic wandering garter. We had a great time there!

Orange update

2010-04-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

She is coloring up real nice...these 2 photos were taken last week before she shed. Her nose is turning orange and there are orange spots on her belly. The orange on her sides is becoming real bright also! Can't wait to see how much more she colors up!!

playing the waiting game.....

2010-03-28T22:46:00.000-07:00

And waiting......and more waiting.... The females bred in the middle of January...are due any time now!!!! Can't wait! Also, got my Certificate of Registration renewal approved!!! Can officially breed local species again!!

Also, I am waiting to send some money to a friend that has gotten me a pair of Oregon red spotted garters.....hypoerythristic....or diminished red coloration! I have seen pics...the female looks awesome! I should also be getting some northwestern garters and red sided garters before too long! And, if things go right...and adult snow eastern!!!!!

New Banner

2010-03-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

I went with Lyndi Thursday to pick up my banner. It turned out awesome!!! Of course, Lyndi had to goof off during one of the pics =)

Cool

2010-03-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I am going to pick up my banner for the reptile expo! Looking forward to picking it up!

Big girls

2010-03-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

These 3 snakes are probably pregnant. The first one is an anerythristic x golden red sided garter that was bred with an anerythristic male. The second one is a het for albino (carries the albino gene) red sided garter. The last one is a plains garter that carries multiple albino genes. She looks like she will have a big litter! Looking forward to babies this spring!!!! I also have 2 Oregon red spotted garters that I think are pregnant also, but they are too wild to get photos of.

Web site done!

2010-02-27T17:59:00.000-08:00

Woo hoo!!! Finished my website today!!! Nikki helped. Thanks Nik!

Could be a good year

2010-02-26T21:04:00.000-08:00

While doing my feeding and cleaning today, I checked on my females. I think I have a few gravid ones. Cariad, the multiple het albino plains garter (and mascot of the thamnophis.com forum) sure looks gravid. Both female red spotted garters feel gravid. Two red siders also look gravid...my het albino and my anery x golden. Will be a few more weeks before I can tell for sure. I really hope so!!!

Bummed

2010-02-22T08:57:00.000-08:00

This year hasn't started out real good.....have had a few of my snakes die for no apparent reason.... My Florida blue just died, my rare silver eastern and yellow eastern from Canada, my male red sided het albino.....sucks. Now I am just playing the waiting game to see who is gravid.

Fun day at work

2010-01-17T19:17:00.000-08:00

Last June I got a call about a 6 foot boa in a yard in Salt Lake City. I figured someone found a large gopher snake. I was in for a surprise! It was a 7 foot burmese python! He was scared and I was in for a fight! I won and he eventually went to the reptile rescue for a new home.

Breedin' season

2010-01-14T17:38:00.000-08:00

Tis that time again!! Today all the males were brought out of hibernation. Next week the girls come out. And hopefully 3 months later I will have baby snakes all over. Within minutes, my male red spotted garter was courting the male valley garter that's bigger than him!

2010-01-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

Finally!!! My website is done!!!!! got a few bugs in it still..... =( and a special thanks to Nikki for her help! =)

2010-01-01T15:47:00.000-08:00

Woo hoo! I am in the journal of the European Garter Snake Association!! I was asked to write and artice for them about me. Most of the book is in German...but my article is in English. I got a free copy of it recently! I am getting known all over the world!

2010-01-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

Nikki took a graphics class at school....she loves to make stuff that has my web site name on it. She made me 4 of these shirts, 1 green and 3 red. Love them! Thanks Nik!!

2009-12-30T18:38:00.000-08:00

Well, not much new to report....snakes are sleeping, getting ready for breeding. Will be bringing them out next month. I am also currently redoing my website...got a couple pages done....gonna look real nice!!! I will be putting it on the web once I get all the pages done....Nikki is helping me. So far I have the home page, contact page, and blog page done....

Sweet!

2009-11-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

This is the first ever produced....orange phase nebraska albino plains garter snake! Well, I have 2 of them....one is brighter than the other. I tried to get some decent shots to show the orange, but kind of hard to get to show real well.

new guys

2009-11-08T21:59:00.000-08:00

I have been away from the computer for a bit with some work on the kitchen that needed done. I got some new snakes during this time. My favorite is the female eastern blackneck garter....she is huge!!

All my adults are in brumation (for those of you that don't know, brumation is a state of decreased metabolism...the snakes slow down and get cold for the winter, they stay active in their cages) getting ready for the next breeding season. It's a nice break....lots of snakes to feed and clean up after takes a lot of time. During this time the babies I still have will be fed well, hoping to get them up to breeding size by next winter. I have a gallery on photobucket...look for ssssnakeluvr on there and you can see a lot of photos of my snakes.

Brief update

2009-11-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

I have been busy helping Lyndi with the kitchen (what a job that was...loved it!!). I will be posting some pics of new snakes later this week and posting (got some awesome new ones coming!)

my blog

2009-10-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

This is just a little blog about my hobby. Nothing fancy here. I raise and breed garter snakes (and a few other snakes, but mainly garters). I will be posting photos and short stories about stuff involving my critters and me.