In my home reside two pet snakes.  Well, pets to my grandson who also
lives here but I prefer my cats, especially a lovely lilac point
Siamese. Here's the question.  Herb(he/she) is almost, 7 years old, 30
inches long, eats only goldfish and was originally sold as a ribbon
snake.  My (sweet?) grandson just found in the snow (we live in
Maryland) an almost moribund, similar looking snake but he/she is
about l8" long, docile (whereas Herb is not) and can be held (not by
me, of course) who seems to think Herb is pretty nice and they are
often head to head and coil abound each other in what we call the
trees in the cage.   I would really like to have some idea of the
dfferences in appearance of ribbon and garters as I actually have
enjoyed watching Herb once I learned to handle watching him swim in
the goldfish bowl in his cage and then devour a fish, over quickly I
might add.  The new smaller snake has only  been with us 4 days but
looks to be healthy and Herb has made no attempt to oust him so we'd
like to know what kind of new "friend" we are now harboring. 
Pinkfreud is a favorite researcher of mine but if she is anti-snake as
I am unless it is in a cage, she may prefer that someone else take a
go at this one. Let me know if more description of each of these
reptiles is necessary.

Hello again, Calamity Jane! 

I'm happy to help on this matter. When I was a youngster, I was
fascinated by reptiles, and I had several pet snakes, including a
veritable snake-pit full of garter snakes that lived between a
retaining wall and my backyard fence. Now that I am older, I tend to
choose warm blooded pets (I agree with you about preferring cats -
there's no snake in the world that can equal a purring fur-faced
angel!)

On the matter of distinguishing a ribbon snake from a garter snake,
you'll find some good descriptions, with illustrations, on this
University of Massachusetts site:

University of Massachusetts: Striped Snakes
http://www.umass.edu/umext/nrec/snake_pit/pages/stripedsnakes.html

Note that the first description on the page above leads to this
information about the ribbon snake:

"The ribbon snake is a very slender, striped snake, similar in
appearance to the garter snake but with a much longer tail."
 
University of Massachusetts: Eastern Ribbon Snake
http://www.umass.edu/umext/nrec/snake_pit/pages/eribbon.html

The second description on the snake identification page leads to a
page describing the garter snake:

"A dark line separating the yellow side stripe from the belly is not
particularly bold as it is in the ribbon snake. "

University of Massachusetts: Common Garter Snake
http://www.umass.edu/umext/nrec/snake_pit/pages/cgarter.html

To summarize the information found on the site above, the main
differences between these snakes are these:

A ribbon snake is more slender than a garter snake, and is more often
found in wetlands. The stripe pattern of the ribbon snake includes
bold dark stripes between the snake's belly and sides, while the
garter snake's stripe pattern may have a "checkered" appearance.

Notice the "stripe pattern" diagram shown for each snake. If you
compare these patterns against the snakes in question, that should
help you to identify the little fellas as garters or ribbons.

I found a Garter & Ribbon Snake Forum which may be useful in obtaining
information about these critters. There seem to be quite a few people
who are fond of them!

Kingsnake.com: Garter & Ribbon Snake Forum
http://forum.kingsnake.com/garter/

And here's a nice "care sheet" which covers both garter and ribbon
snakes:

Livefood UK: CAPTIVE CARE SHEET SPECIES, Garter Snakes and Ribbon
Snakes
http://www.livefood.co.uk/zgartersnake.htm

The site linked below has some well-detailed photos of both snakes.
Notice how much thicker the garter snake's body is, compared to the
delicate ribbon snake. In the top two photos, note the patterns of
dark spots under the lower stripe. This is a variant of the
"checkered" pattern that is referred to on the University of
Massachusetts site linked above. This row of spots or "checkers" is
typically present on the garter snake; the ribbon snake has a dark,
solid band in this area instead.

South Alley: Garter and Ribbon Snakes
http://www.southalley.com/album_thamnophis.html

My strategy for locating this information included the search terms
"garter snake," "ribbon snake," "difference," "identify," and
"identification."

I hope this helps your grandson to identify his snakes. If you need
more information, or if any of the links do not function, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance.

Best wishes,
pinkfreud

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 09 Jan 2003 16:25 PST

Thank you very much for the five-star rating and the nice tip!

May your grandson's snakes have long, happy lives (and stay in their cages.)

~pinkfreud

I will contact pinkfreud to see if she wants to or has the time to
answer your question.