The Lake Cuitzeo Garter Snake is a sub-species for the Mexican Garter snake and only occurs in Lago de Cuitzeo, Michoacán, Mexico. It is a relatively heavy bodied larger Garter snake, but still of a size that would be described as a small to medium sized snake – around a metre in length. It is an attractive species that tends to grow into a black adult, with an appealing blue hue, especially around the neck region. Not a commonly seen or kept species in captivity, one for the Garter snake enthusiast.
In captivity they are an easy species to cater for, as long as some basic needs are met. They are a basking diurnal species and are active during daylight hours. We provide 6-7{cb5d0a8cf0c44aef2db327d9ab0dba08dd09aed1126b509e5fa01d3aaa87fe47} UVB light during the daytime hours. A popular choice is a T5 fluorescent tube, far superior to the older T8 tubes. Temperatures need to be no higher than around 26-28C during the day, down to around 20-22C at night. There are several ways to provide this, some keepers used halogen and incandescent light emitting bulbs, others prefer ceramic heaters (no light) as this can provide heat for the night too.
A glass terrarium of around 1 metre in length is ideal. They are known as a relatively aquatic species, and should be provided a large area of water to submerge in. This species is very active, and they do climb frequently, this needs to be catered for with branches and plants. They can do well in a planted natural terrarium, with real plants – but ensure the snakes are provided with an area that they can fully dry themselves. One of the main health issues of concern is caused by keeping them too wet all the time – skin blisters can occur.
Being a species found around water they eat mainly eat fish, though like most Garters they are often willing to eat worms too.