Thamnophis eques Cuitzeoensis
Mexican gartersnake
The lake Cuitzeo Gartersnake, is a strongly aquatic snake and spend its life close to water basking on the banks. They originated from the lake Cuitzeo, Michoacan in Mexico. They tend to stay smaller than the other species in the Eques genus (females get 95cm males stay smaller). When you decide to acquire this specie of snake, consider building a vivarium that has a large pond or water dish in it. I see mine constantly swimming. When they need heat they are found underneath their basking spot. Like all gartersnakes they are a little skittish and nervous, especially when they're about to eat. Unlike boidae and pythonidae they actively hunt their prey. They wander around looking for things to eat, therefore they've adapted to a much wider diet of prey animals. Juveniles and some adults will even eat earthworms and waxworms. In the wild when they grow older they start eating anything from fish, amphibians and occasionaly small rodents. They are opportunistic hunters, this behaviour is perceptible when you feed multiple animals. They will often steal food from each others. In some cases this can result in a bigger snake eating a smaller snake.
Lighting and Heating.
This snake is day active therefore I provide them with a little UvB fluorescent bulb, this isen't ought to be necessary though. Provide a heat spot of at least 30-35°C. They do well in a dry and well ventilated enclosure. When combined with a large swimming pond, animals won't ever get stuck in shed as they can always choose between dry or wet. I give mine about 14-15 hours of light a day. At night, tempratures drop till about 18°C, they will tolerate lower tempratures aswell. This specie doesn't really need to hibernate but a cooler period is introduced starting from november by lowering the time of light each day by 1 hour. Do this every week till you have about 11-12 hours of light a day. Also change your light bulb with a lower wattage bulb so that the hot spot only gets about 25°C. This will stimulate breeding.
Food.
Because amphibians are really expensive to feed, I feed my snakes smelt and chicken liver, hearts and stomachs. Know that smelt contains thiaminase which deprives your snakes from their B1 vitamines. Add those back with suplements or give fish that doesn't contain thiaminase. The thamnophis eques can eat a lot of things, like I said earth worms are also appreciated and I sometimes buy raw, unprocces fish when I do groceries to feed them. I offer food 1 or 2 times a week. Make sure your food is well defrosted before offering it.
Breeding.
Breeding with this specie is fairly easy, I keep my couple together year round. The female is ovoviviparous, which means youngsters are born alive but without plancenta attatched, so their is no messing around with incubating eggs or anything. If you read the above about lighting and heating, your male will probably show breeding behaviour between october to february. When the female is pregnant the male will lose interest. About 1-2 months later your female should have a clutch. During this period, the female can be observed spending the entire day underneath the basking spot. Afther awhile the scales will look more streched apart and one might consider preparing another enclosure for the young to live in. One day you will check on your snakes and you'll find more snakes in there then the day before! Move the juvenile snakes to the other enclosure. They require the same heat and food as the adult animals. Try feeding them a few days after birth, maybe some juveniles won't eat immediatly. Wait 3-4 weeks (while still offering them food once/ twice a week). If they still don't eat try to trigger their hunting instincts by feeding them earthworms. In most cases this will motivate them to eat. I feed all my juvenile snakes seperatly in little boxes, afterwards they return to their enclosure.
