questions regarding thamnophis marciauns snake care

[ObsidianDragon]

See the great thing about garters is that you can house them together. There went your last excuse not to have more snakes.

I've seen it said, however, that Checkereds are one of the species you should NOT house communally. There's a few.

That said, my Checkered sure as heck seems to be out and about all during the day! I have chosen to provide him with a UVB light, despite it not being required.

Otherwise, the standard garter care sheet seems to apply, yep.

[d_virginiana]

I've seen it said, however, that Checkereds are one of the species you should NOT house communally. There's a few.

That said, my Checkered sure as heck seems to be out and about all during the day! I have chosen to provide him with a UVB light, despite it not being required.

Otherwise, the standard garter care sheet seems to apply, yep.

Can you link to that? I've only ever seen wandering garters listed as cannibals; this is of course assuming the keeper uses common sense with size differences and age.

[ObsidianDragon]

Can you link to that? I've only ever seen wandering garters listed as cannibals; this is of course assuming the keeper uses common sense with size differences and age.

"With some garter snake species, there is a risk of cannibalism, and they should be housed individually. This is especially true of the Western Terrestrial Garter Snake (Thamnophis elegans), the most commonly kept subspecies of which are the Wandering Garter Snake (T. e. vagrans) and the Coast Garter Snake (T. e. terrestris). There have been many reports of Wandering Garter Snakes eating their cagemates. While some have kept this species collectively with no trouble at all, play it safe and keep no more than one per cage. Cannibalism has also been reported in Checkered Garter Snakes (Thamnophis marcianus) and occasionally with Common Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis). The risk with common garters is probably quite small, and I keep mine collectively, but it has been known to happen, so consider yourself warned."

Source: Housing - Gartersnake.info

Pugets, too, although I can't find that link at the moment. That one had pictures, so uh...I'll believe it. O.o

[d_virginiana]

Interesting. I always wonder how many of those are straight up cannibalism and how many have another story behind it... I've had no problem keeping my two similarly sized T. sirtalis together, but had several bite attempts between two sibling T. ocellatus that differed a lot in size that I had to separate out of fear they'd eat each other.

[slipknot711]

they only issues i ever had was when my young ones have feeding time, i have to baby sit just to make sure they both dont lock on to the same worm or what have you...