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Re: Multiple Garters
I'd avoid the snakes at your local Petco like the plague. The manager of the reptile department seems to know very little about healthy conditions or a proper diet, and the dead snakes and crickets prove it. There's a lot more that could be said, here. Anyway, the overcrowded conditions are only temporary until they sell a few. At that density, and under those moist conditions, the snakes are obviously stressed. Stressed animals (including people) have weaker immune systems and are more susceptible to respiratory infection, pneumonia, parasitic outbreak, etc.
Personally, I'm against releasing almost any wild snake that has been in captivity. If they were stressed while in your care, which is likely simply due to confinement, they may have developed pneumonia or other pathologies. If you release the snake at this time of year it may either die alone or possibly find other snakes and infect them when they're at their most vulnerable... during hibernation in a communal setting. It's a great way to deliver a time bomb into a wild population.
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