I just found this forum the other night and really wish I had found it sooner. My wife and I kept a wild-caught eastern garter for several years while she used it for educational purposes at a local nature center where she teaches kids about local animal species. Unfortunately, much of the information out there about garters turned out to be flat-out wrong and we stumbled through a few years of snake-keeping with what turned out to be bad information. Luckily, our leopard gecko was quite happy with the crickets and meal worms that the guy at the pet store told us garters would eat. We eventually found that our Howard would gladly eat earthworms and was a real ham checking out anyone who passed by his enclosure. Anyway, my wife and I grew quite attached to our snake (who lived with us when he wasn't needed for programming at the center) and were devastated when he passed away this past spring. We're looking into getting a new garter soon (probably captive bred this time) and will be using a lot of the correct information found here to make sure our next snake lives a long and happy life.