my son wants to keep a garden snake is this safe how do I feed it and house it?

Answer 1

no i think you should get him a different kind of animal couse a wild animal always would be wild get him a bird

Answer 2

You can keep a snake in a special habitat called an terrarium it is similar to a fish aquarium with a screen on top, a garden snake is prone to have diseases and is not a very good candidate for a pet and against the law in some community's to keep captive and you feed it frozen mice available at most large pet stores.Feed a young snake a portion close in size to their body's widest part 2-3 times a week. Feed an adult if it lives that long 1 time a week. Make sure they have water available. I would release the snake back into the wild and get your son a Coral snake from a pet store.

Answer 3

Do you mean garter snake? You can buy some at a reptile place. They are also semi aquatic so you would need to provide a large water tub. They also eat fish so you can buy red roseys at a pet store. They are better than feeder gold fish. The thing with garter snakes is some can grow large fang like teeth and if your son gets bit he may have a bad reaction. I would recommend getting him a corn snake or a ball python.

To the other people, snakes are venomous, not poisonous, learn the proper words if you want to help people. Poisonous means you eat it and I'm sure the snake isn't for dinner. VENOMOUS means they bite you and die. Various types of garter snakes are illegal to own such as the San Fransisco Garter, other than that they aren't even if they are wild caught.

Garters live a couple of years not a few months.

Coral snakes are venomous.

Snakes don't care if they have a family.

All snakes can bite, it is a risk you run.

Answer 4

first of all its not garden snake it's garter snake and you should just let it go because it may have disease and you may have trouble getting it to eat because you took it out of the wild, its home, put it in a cage and you can bet it's stressed out now also you run the risk of the snake biting your son, if your son wants a snake, go get a captive breed one instead, like a corn snake, they're cheap and don't get too big, this way theres little chance the snake could be sick and you won't have a problem feeding it, all you have to do is go to the pet store and buy frozen pinkies, thaw them and offer it to the snake (or you can get live and just put the mouse in with the snake), to house it you will have to do some research, a 15/20 gallon aquarium style tank will probably do for starters.

Answer 5

It is NOT illegal to capture & keep garter snakes & they are totally harmless. Most of the herp keepers of my generation began with these hardy little snakes as their first. At that time 40-50 yrs ago, there were no breeders to buy snakes from , so all snakes were wild captures & no , they weren't disease ridden, no the natural populations didn't plummet etc. Garters are very easy to keep. A 10-20gal tank with a tight lid to prevent escape, a sturdy water bowl, suitable substrate(shredded aspen bark, newspaper), a place for the snake to hide, a florescent lamp for light, a small undertank heater, covers the housing. For food, the young ones will readily eat earthworms, minnows/guppies & will graduate quickly to pinkie mice, and later, bigger mice. You can buy these mice frozen from most pet stores for your convience & the worms & small fish, you can catch yourself or buy from bait shops. Just feed the snake a couple of worms or fish every couple days & as the snake grows, it will slow down it's feeding to once a week or 10 days or so. One benefit from a wild capture, if the snake won't eat, you can always release it where you caught it, something you can't do with a purchased snake.

Answer 6

The actual name is 'garter snake', and they make nice enough pets- but not really for beginners.

Most of us animal lovers kept a lot of the things we found locally. It helps us build a real love for all kinds of things, and we generally did not do a great job of it.

I recommend that you encourage this to a point- but in the case of the Garter snake, that he only keep it a few days.

If he likes it, and you don't mind it, he can go to a good pet shop and look for a snake that IS a good pet. A corn snake, for example, is inexpensive, easy to care for, and overall a very nice species of snake.

Answer 7

Possessing a wild animal is illegal and garter snakes are protected in many states. They are very unique creatures and not a good pet for a beginner, you will probably kill it in other words. And defeinitely there is the potential to get life threatening Salmonella from any reptile, but especially wild ones.
Why not contact your local vet that sees reptiles and ask a few questions on startup cost and basic husbandry of reptiles. You might be surprised at how much work these creatures really are and if your son isn't going to take care of it, are you willing to step in and thaw and feed it the mice?

-a veterinarian

Answer 8

It’s totally safe to have a garden snake. There’s only 50% chance to die from a garden snake attack. In USA and UK only 15000 people die per year by garden snake poison. It’s less than 35% from all garden snake lovers. So don’t worry let ur son to bring a garden snake. Even ppl say Viper's are deadly u can teach them to respond to your commands so I recommend a Viper for your son.

Good Luck

Answer 9

it is actually illegal to keep any wild caught animal.. so he should return the snake where he found it and if he wants to get a snake as a pet he should go to a local store or reptile show and learn about them..

have him wash his hands after releasing the snakes (I am sure he will notice a peculiar odor on his hands from the snake)

Answer 10

you shouldn't just keep wild snakes...like the above question says, but you can buy garter snakes from pet stores...i forget if they eat crickets or small mice, but you can buy frozem meat things from petco/petsmarts that count the same as one mouse...mostly their houseing is pretty simple, a terrarium (10 gallon tank with some plants, a water dish, and stuff to hide in) with a light (optional) and a lid they won't escape through. i don't recall how often you have to feed them, but its probably less than weekly

stop by a petstore, they'll tell you everything you need to know.

Answer 11

Put it in a tank and feed it grasshoppers. garden snakes are safe the are no danger to humans. they only live about 2-3 months