Wild caught and injured

[ConcinusMan]

good idea

[Greg'sGarters]

Put an earthworm in there. See if he takes it, don't constantly watch him. Just put it in his tank and leave the room. Check back every hour and if he hasn't eaten it in 4 hours, take it out. Most healthy garters will have trouble refusing an earthworm. Don't add any supplements. Don't cut a big one in half get a medium sized full one that moves a lot. If he eats then he's fine and you can feed him earthworms until he seems completely healed. Then you can try to put him on pinkies. Also remember to keep him warm. Keep his temp at around 80-90 degrees for a sick or injured snake. Add a lot of cool (I mean cool temperature wise, but if you have some stuff that would be effective and looks nice, go for it!) hiding places. Try not to use an under tank heater. Those will make it harder to provide a cool hiding place. Monitor his behavior and keep us updated! Hope this helped!!!

[ConcinusMan]

Keep his temp at around 80-90 degrees for a sick or injured snake. Add a lot of cool (I mean cool temperature wise, but if you have some stuff that would be effective and looks nice, go for it!) hiding places. Try not to use an under tank heater. Those will make it harder to provide a cool hiding place. Monitor his behavior and keep us updated! Hope this helped!!!

You contradicted. What you just described, one should do anyway, sick snake or not. Keeping sick/injured snakes warm is a fallacy. Too many people think this means that you shouldn't have a cool end/gradient and that the whole tank should be warm. Any herp vet worth his salt will tell you that this is bad for them. Sure, it can make RI symptoms subside a bit, but it stresses the immune system and can actually cause RI's. The only thing you should do different, is leave the daytime temps on 24/7 instead of turning off the heat at night. In any case, a wide gradient is what they need. Perhaps around 70 on the cool/water dish end, around 90 for a basking spot. Go ahead and use an undertank heater or even combine it with overhead heat to warm the air. If done properly it isn't hard at all to still provide the cool places you speak of. An undertank heater shouldn't cover more than 1/4 to 1/3 of the entire floor area anyway.