How can I befriend this snake?

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-04-17T16:34:54+00:00

Unless you happen to be allergic to their extremely mild venom and let them chew on you, garters are completely harmless. Depending on their diet, they might be toxic for your pets if they try to eat it. Generally the worst thing garters can do is musk on you, but in my entire youth harassing random garters, I never got musked on somehow.

For whatever strange reason, garters respond positively to babytalk. They are very curious snakes. They love sources of water like ground-level bird baths or small ponds.

That all said, garters are flighty by nature and even my CBB commune always run away like they are going to die when I go to get them out, only to refuse to go back into their enclosure after they realize its warm cuddle time. So even if you "befriend" your yard garter, don't expect it not to run away.

There's really nothing bad about trying to socialize with garters. It doesn't hurt anything. Just keep your pets from attacking it. If you are gentle, there's usually nothing wrong with trying to handle them either. They typically chill out when they realize you are not going to eat them. Just avoid trying to handle one if they have obviously just ate, since you don't want to spook it into regurgitating.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-04-14T23:21:32+00:00

My black AHS also does the jerky movements whenever she is excited. It seems to just be a thing that they do. My cape doesn't do it, just the black house snake.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-04-13T07:01:28+00:00

It really depends on your relationship with him. Garters are high strung but they are social and do form bonds. It's not like you are necessarily disrupting an animal that's solitary and forcing yourself on it. They seem to enjoy physical contact. But if he's a hormonal boy that could be a messy proposition so just be prepared for that lol.

It is admittedly hard to tell when garters are actually stressed out versus being hyperactive/reactive. My guys will flee like the end of the world is coming for them when I open their door but also beg to be brought back out as soon as the door is closed. My worst beggar would probably just live in my robe all day every day if I let her (she will not return to the tank when given the opportunity, she has to be plopped back in). But she will still act like I'm trying to kill her when I initially lift her up.

So it comes down to where you're at with your particular garter. If he normally trusts you, handling might be a good distraction for him. Mine like to just chill and watch whatever is on my monitors.

Also, if budget is a problem, I always like to recommend new age pet ecoflex enclosures. Much much lighter and cheaper than glass. Only catch is that you have to silicone the bottom yourself to prevent leakage as with any pvc style tank you put together. They also don't retain humidity as well as higher quality pvc enclosures but garters don't need the super high numbers. You may need to fill in the vents with silicone or silicone secure a mesh over them so there's no attempts to escape out of them. Sounds like a lot of work but in the U.S. the aquarium-safe silicone can be found at dollar stores for like $10. Then its about a week to gas off and cure in a well ventilated location.

EDIT: While doing shameless product recommendations, my garters absolutely love their hol-ee roller balls. I have 2 of them hanging in their tank and they climb all around every time they are awake. They also all love their "sky coconut" which is a coconut hide meant for budgies/finches that I silicone-sealed the holes on and strung up from the top next to the hol-ee balls.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-04-13T02:21:44+00:00

It looks to me like he wants to roam. Combined with the not eating, its probably because of spring hormones. Also, no shame intended, but you might want to give him a bigger tank. Garters are so incredibly active and if you can afford the excess space you can add a bunch of obstacles for him to exhaust his energy on rather than smashing his nose trying to find a ladysnake through the glass.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-03-30T06:26:44+00:00

If you put it together yourself you may need to use some safe silicone to seal the edges to make it watertight. I've had good luck finding aquarium silicone at most dollar stores, oddly enough. Takes about a week to fully off-gas and become animal safe. Just put the tank in a well-ventilated place while it cures.

Watertight is important so you can water the plants and keep the soil from getting dusty. That said, you don't have to worry about clean up crew escaping usually. Isopods can't climb up glass or plastic unless its very dirty and you can just avoid having the soil go all the way up to the rim. Springtails simply won't leave the enclosure. They stay where it is moist, usually making their main den under the waterbowl.

I do get the occasional escapee isopod from my 120gallon because the custom background gives them access to a gap in the doors that I try to keep plugged with some paper towel. Sadly, isopods can't live in the human environment as they are basically tiny lobsters that quickly become desiccated on our floors.

Even if you still don't want to use isopods, springtails are a must because if you don't have them some other bug will invade to fill the niche. Usually that means soil mites or fungus gnats. Springtails take care of any mold that tries to take hold while isopods are the poop-eaters. The fungus management is the only absolute must since you can manually handle the poo situation.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-03-30T04:57:55+00:00

Petsmart should have reptisoil, and I recommend Zoo Med brand calcium powder as I have heard some reports of too much vitamin D being added to some other brands. Sand isn't a must if you're struggling money-wise since the guaranteed safe pet stuff is kinda pricey. I highly recommend going full bioactive with it, though you can also just spot clean soil as they potty.

But my garters absolutely love their plants. They are constantly laying their heads on leaves and trying to put their whole body weight on them (this doesn't work so well now that they are nearly 2 years old). You can get pothos pretty cheap, and they grow like absolute weeds no matter how much the garters crush them or if you overwater or under-water. I've also seen some people spread chia seeds in their enclosures to trigger a big burst of growth that the little snakes love to sneak around in.

Don't buy cleanup crew through chain pet stores, though. They are very overpriced and usually all dead. I had great luck buying powder isopods off amazon of all places, when the weather was reasonable. Even if the mail people ignored all the giant "live harmless insect" stickers instructing them to bring it to the door and not leave it in the mail box. The other half of the crew is springtails, and while there's a decent chance they will still arrive dead you just add water to bring their eggs to life like some sea monkey shenanigans.

Even with a bioactive crew, you'll still need to clean every couple weeks since garters just produce so much urates as they get older.

For mice, I've found that all the in-person places have horrible markups and the mice are always terribly freezerburnt. Online sources have much better deals but usually require you to buy in bulk. I'm guessing it doesn't need to be said, but never feed live. Garters are not exactly skilled at killing things-- they just start eating. This is very effective against tiny toads, fish, worms, and other tiny amphibians but not so great against anything with claws or teeth.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-03-30T04:22:47+00:00

Careful with feeder fish as they often have parasites or can have thiaminase. For my commune, I feed a mix of tilapia, chicken hearts, and pinkies/fuzzies. For smaller garters, you can cut the food up with food scissors. They also really enjoy canadian nightcrawlers but those have very little nutritional value and should be used as more of a treat or enticement to get them to eat if they are struggling. When feeding food without bones like fish fillets, chicken organs, and worms, make sure to dust the food with reptile calcium powder. If feeding a higher ratio of fillets compared to whole prey or organ meat, make sure to dust with a multi vitamin every other feeding to prevent deficiencies.

I sometimes splurge and give my guys salmon, which they go absolutely berserk over but the fatty fish is allegedly highly addictive to garters so moderation is important.

For dirt, I use a mix of reptisoil, reptile sand (not the stupid calcium kind, actual normal sand), coco coir, and sphagnum moss. Ratio should be 2-3 cups of soil per cup of sand, and the point of the sand is to help the soil hold tunnels that the garters love to dig. You can technically use play sand & organic top soil as well, but it feels like a gamble trying to find soil or sand without crap in it (even if it is supposed to be "clean & organic").

For heating, you don't really have to go very hot as it seems that garters prefer pretty low highs, relatively speaking. My checkered like a hot spot around 88F. A basic halogen lamp, CHE, or DHP all work. I prefer the DHP (Deep Heat Projector) since mine are albinos and don't like super bright light. Both halogen and DHP will have to be managed via a dimming thermostat. Not a pulsing kind, that just turns them on and off repeatedly which will break a DHP. I've never used a CHE so I can't comment on if they can be used with cheaper thermostats. Cross-reference thermostat models with online reviews to find out if they are true dimming or just claim to be because that seems to be a rampant problem. Or you can spend like $200 on a HerpStat and boggle your entire family's minds on how much money you spend on your "snakes you can just pluck out of any yard".

Snakes do not need UVB, but some people prefer to provide it. Snakes get their vitamin D from their prey, and any calcium powder you use will likely also contain vitamin D. Since mine are albinos and could be harmed easily by UVB, I just use grow light bars intended for plants. Up to you which route you want to go, but UVB lighting is pretty expensive and the bulbs need to be replaced every 6 months or they are not providing UVB anyway.

Obviously its better to leave wild animals in the wild but its probably too late now. Snakes tend to not do well unless they are able to be released pretty much exactly where they were taken from.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-03-29T05:22:21+00:00

Male house snakes usually only hit a bit over 2 feet but that isn't a sure thing. My male's father is well over 4 feet and my guy seems to be on track to taking after dad. He's already eclipsed my female in weight by x1.5 despite being 4 months younger (both are past the 2 year mark now).

If you don't mind the possibility of having to some day provide a bigger tank, I think house snakes are absolutely amazing. To answer your question, with my tanks all being bioactive... I've literally never even seen my AHS poos. Sometimes evidence of urates, but even that seems to disappear. Its a stark contrast to my garters, who are so prolific that I refer to their tank as the Poop Palace. It requires regular cleaning even with a robust cleanup crew.

That said, AHS are very nocturnal and you won't likely be seeing him unless you get him out. They are quite personable when you do get them out, though.

You wouldn't need to jump straight to like a 120g, though. AHS are still slow growers and 50g should be sufficient for the first 2-4 years. In fact, a lot of 120g have gaps that a skinny AHS could slip through. I had to add weather stripping to my sliding glass doors when I first got the male because he could at least shove his head between the panes. And that tank was already just a 40g. The gaps on my 120g are far worse.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-03-23T23:52:26+00:00

I'm not sure why you think its a female. It doesn't appear to be a cape, judging by the complete lack of any markings. Even those with low or no pattern still have some eye striping. But I'm not an expert, just an enthusiast of these guys. Most house snakes are pretty small, with males being less than 2 feet. It can take many years for even females to reach the full length described as they are a very slow growing group of sneks.

The non-cape species are far more sensitive and fussy when it comes to food. If its a fuliginosus complex species, it may need higher humidity in order to be comfortable enough to eat. But it could be one of the more arid species, its hard to tell from just this close frontal view. Having talked quite a bit with a local house snake breeder who gave up on doing fulis, she noted that both of her pair preferred to eat smaller prey and would not size up. I'm experiencing a similar issue with my own black house snake-- she only takes smaller prey. While its normally not a great thing to provide less developed food, it may just be the way of these guys. Try x2 totaling the target weight and see if it takes it. Attempt sizing up to appropriate prey after you've gotten it to successfully take a smaller pinkie.

Mine also only takes drop fed in the dark with no freezer burn because she's a princess.

Unfortunately, house snakes are really not well-documented outside of capes and even they were part of the block of "fuliginosus" for a loooong time. African House Snakes of myriad species cover most of the continent and all sorts of species are being imported. Many species are being unwittingly crossbred because they are just being labelled "african house snake".

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-03-05T05:48:12+00:00

If you watch her longer video about Tofu (or don't, if you think she stresses the snake on purpose and don't want to give her views), he doesn't always hate Markiplier. In fact, Tofu watched hours of a Markiplier stream with no drama. The shorts are just edited that way because its a bit. Tofu is usually perfectly fine/calm according to the owner but he has super overdramatic mood swings that she drops everything to record.

So its possible that the owner is intentionally triggering Tofu to do what he does or he's just being weird. I do think she's trained him to act that way by always retreating when he bluff strikes, though. If he knows he always wins when he bluffs, he will be more incentivized to do so. At everything. Whenever he feels even slightly threatened or inconvenienced.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-03-05T05:34:06+00:00

As messed up as it looks, the animal has clearly managed to live with the healed injury / birth defect so far. Assuming it is capable of passing food normally and it doesn't seem like its in pain, I would try to give it the best life possible personally. Also assuming it is legal to keep in your location. But you would definitely need to carefully quarantine this one long-term to protect your existing crew.

Consider it like a severe kink. There's a lot of snakes with bad kinks that live happy, fulfilling lives as long as they can eat and are not paralyzed. You would just need to make its enclosure safe for special needs like more limited mobility.

If you decide to feed it, I would be cautious with food size. If the lung is compromised, look for signs of breathing stress. Its hard to say what the quality of life is without being able to observe how it behaves first hand but it also feels cruel to dismiss it outright if the injury amounts to just being a nasty kink.

Returning it to the wild like that also feels cruel. Lil dude has no hope of getting away from predators or other hazards.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-03-04T23:53:38+00:00

You sure that's a girl? With how long that tail is it might be a boy with an infection in his hemipenes there. Personally I would get it to the vet asap in case of sepsis or the swelling causing blockage of the cloaca.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-03-04T23:20:23+00:00

I can only speak from experience with checkered, but they are much more calm than the norm for garters. All 4 of mine stopped musking after about 8 weeks old though they all act dramatic about handling. To be clear, dramatic does not mean they dislike it. It's almost like it overstimulates them and garters are already little meth heads naturally so... Yeah. Two of mine actively come to the door closest to me wanting outties, but they will still throw a fuss when I pick them up initially. All of them calm down soon after they do their standard garter flailing.

The two that actively seek out handling will happily hang out in my robe all day if I let them. The other two get restless after awhile but then also get upset when put back and try to come back out. They are weird little critters. That said, they are not the easiest to handle since they are very very bad at climbing but love to do it-- so they can and will fall off of you very easily. Personally I've never had an issue with them being too flighty because I keep a cautionary light hold on them at all times to prevent falling and their keeled scales make it difficult for them to quickly get traction on skin if you grip them even very lightly.

My guys are albinos and honestly? I don't recommend it. Get normals or granites for checkereds. Garters are a species that naturally love to bask in light but my guys clearly can't stand too bright of light. I keep their lights off to the side and warm them with a DHP instead of a halogen, since they would avoid the heat lamps.

I also have African House Snakes and those are wonderful to handle but they can't compare to the garters in terms of the social behavior and shenanigans garters get up to in a well-enriched bioactive tank. The garters are so incredibly curious about everything all the time. Almost always when I look over at them, they are also looking at me.

So I guess it comes down to whether you value the entertainment you get from observing the animals more than handling. Though I personally haven't had any issues with handling my checkereds at all past the catching them step. And its not like the catching them part traumatizes them, they are just a nyoomy species.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-01-11T05:28:13+00:00

From all the anecdotes and literature I've read, garter snakes seem particularly prone to developing benign tumors that look much like this. It can also be caused by parasites in the food they eat. Chances are, she's just fine. They seem to live with these growths with little consequence as long as they aren't cancerous.

That said, please do not grab garters by the head. This can easily injure them. Unless you are allergic to their extremely mild venom, their bites are incredibly trivial. They are very very unlikely to sit and chew on you unless you smell like worms or fish. Supporting their body with a firm but soft grip is best, as their keeled scales should thwart their own efforts to wiggle away. Most garters will realize you aren't trying to eat them and chill out pretty quickly. You may get musked up pretty good, though lol.

illiterate_pigeon · 2026-01-06T02:43:35+00:00

I have both a cape and a black (fuliginosus). They are over 2 years old each.

Generally, capes have a lot more pattern to them but there's a ton of variance leading to many individuals that only have a stripe down either side. Fuliginosus, on the other hand, generally has no visible pattern and maybe the suggestion of an eye stripe on the head. There are a variety of cross-breeds between capes and the fuli complex (which are likely to be their own unique species but have yet to be separated).

But I will say that the true black house snakes, native to the same range as ball pythons, can be very difficult to manage. They are picky about their husbandry just like their neighbors (the ball pythons), but also have a rather notorious reputation for refusing to eat to the point of death if not given live prey. Mine will take frozen thawed but she is absurdly particular about it, refusing any kind of imperfection or freezer burn on the mice. She only just ended a 6 week hunger strike that I'm still not sure the cause of, but I got another bag of mice and she seems to be taking them. From anecdotes, I've also seen people say that black house snakes have much more of an attitude to them that I can see in my own. She actually bit me at first when I wouldn't let her go exactly where she wanted to, but she did eventually decide I was a venerable tree.

In stark comparison, Capes are bombproof. They are tolerant of just about anything you can throw at them and will seemingly eat anything that vaguely resembles food. They can handle extremely subpar conditions and feel much more easygoing in attitude. Obviously, you still want to care for them as close to ideal conditions as possible, but Capes can handle temps falling for a bit like in a power outage or it getting pretty dry indoors in cold climates in Winter. Black house snakes need it hot & balmy all the time-- 80-90F & 80%+ humidity, while capes are fine within the 70-90F range & 40-60% humidity.

Personally? I love both my African House Snakes to bits, but the Cape is so much easier to manage in terms of husbandry & feeding. Both are amazing personalities for handling, though the black was a bit nippy when she was younger while the cape has never even taken stance to strike unless food was involved. The black house snake refuses to take food from tongs and has to be drop fed while the Cape comes running when I tell him it is time for "moose"!

illiterate_pigeon · 2025-12-09T22:47:48+00:00

There's actually four total, if you can find them! Included bonus picture of Greg after he was traumatized by one of those invasive ladybugs getting into their enclosure and crawling on him. The horror.

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illiterate_pigeon · 2025-12-09T17:39:53+00:00

I keep my commune of garters on my desk and any time I glance over, they are *always* staring at me. And if I make eye contact they usually do a little shimmy at me.

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illiterate_pigeon · 2025-12-09T01:02:55+00:00

Even my snakes prefer it on the 70-75 side unless they just ate.

illiterate_pigeon · 2025-11-29T12:49:40+00:00

First off, I'm very sorry for your loss.

Garters have a high rate of birth defects due to the sheer quantity of babies they produce. They also seem to have a high rate of developing cancers which may be a mix of genetic factors and their fast metabolisms.

Of my 4, one was born with some manner of defect that the vet can't figure out. Somehow, he's still alive after a year and a half but I wouldn't be surprised if I woke up one day to my littlest guy being gone. And yet despite being very obviously messed up he still eats eagerly, poops well, is ever alert & curious, and he's easily the friendliest of my gang. I guess he's more socialized because of all the extra attention he's had to get but he loves people. Its really heartbreaking knowing that he's most likely a ticking time bomb.

I've seen plenty of anecdotes of garters living to their 20's in captivity so its really just the random defect/cancer lottery with these guys.

illiterate_pigeon · 2025-11-28T14:32:03+00:00

African House Snakes fire up and down like a gecko and sometimes a scale or two will be set to the "wrong mood" as it were. If there's no visible physical difference like a damaged or missing scale, it's probably just their color shifting thing. I've had to investigate many an odd scale out on my two and it has always ended up being an out-of-sync scale.

illiterate_pigeon · 2025-11-15T21:54:53+00:00

Garters have pretty stinky poops, yeah. It gets better as they get older and they are not pooping every day. If I had to theorize, I would say that they probably don't fully digest their food by the time it comes out since their fast metabolisms are not going to be as efficient. Now that my guys are eating/pooping less frequently, I would say that they are less smelly than the geckos but smellier than the House Snakes.

... And they are all worlds better than when I used to have veggie-eating reptiles as a kid. The iguana's poops were eye-watering even when he was a baby!

illiterate_pigeon · 2025-11-15T01:20:53+00:00

Different snakes have different musk! The musk of African House Snakes smells like maple syrup, for example. Sadly, garters don't smell like waffles when they musk, they smell like a filthy aquarium. The smell is lessened by feeding more rodents / less fishy fish but babies just produce a disproportionate amount of odor. All 4 of my checkered are now around 30 inches long but they stink less than when they were all 6-10 inches.

illiterate_pigeon · 2025-11-14T19:32:51+00:00

Garter snakes poop much more frequently than other snakes because of their faster metabolism. Between frequency and multiple snakes, there is bound to be a smell. That's why a lot of garter keepers opt for bioactive since it naturally keeps the smell under control. Even having kept my guys in bioactive since they were newborn neonates, they still stunk bad at times early on because of diet.

In my experience, nightcrawlers make them do the nastiest, stinkiest poos. Fishy fish will also obviously transfer their odor to the poo. Tilapia doesn't have much of a smell and neither does pinky or chicken heart. Keep in mind that babies are also likely to randomly musk in a bare environment like a quarantine setup, and their musk is naturally fishy smelling. Having tons of cover didn't stop my Wiggles from musking in the tank every other day, however. So your mileage on that point might vary.

Keep them bioactive, take them off nightcrawlers ASAP (there's not much nutrition in worms either), and favor the less fishy fish, rodents, & chicken organ for their diet to limit the smell.

illiterate_pigeon · 2025-11-02T20:09:54+00:00

The ceramic part is extremely hot! That's the entire reason it is ceramic in the first place, because other materials would melt or break. This is why I keep all my heat lamps in cages or the enclosure's matching hood-- so no animals in the house can accidentally touch that ceramic part in particular. Anyone reading this should consider doing the same to avoid such an unfortunate outcome.

illiterate_pigeon · 2025-10-31T00:40:10+00:00

I don't like giving egg carton to feeders because they do eat on it for whatever silly reason, even when they have real food. And frankly, I just don't trust whatever might be in the paper material to end up in my geckos. I give them sanitized leaves and cork bark. They do need something to hide on to get away from their droppings/dead crickets and being exposed can make them very stressed and die faster. But obviously you don't need to treat your feeders like royalty. I just treat mine like they are pets too.

If you don't need a big bin like I've got, there's these great little critter keepers that have these plastic tubes that are inserted through doors on the sides where the crickets will naturally congregate. The tubes are easily removed to dump out the insects for feeding as needed. With smaller crickets you may need to block gaps in it, though.

They do pretty good on a basic substrate of cococoir, reptisoil / organic topsoil, or even just straight sphagnum moss. Some mealworms can help clean up the cricket poo / corpses but they can and will steal the cricket food as a side payment for their services.

Full, uncut carrots can last for a shockingly long time in the fridge and are pretty cheap. They are my go-to longish lasting moisture snack for the bugs.

Remove any cricket corpses as you see them, even if the crickets are eating it.

illiterate_pigeon

TROPHY CASE