I keep all my garters individually. From my observations, certain garters do eat a lot of mammals. We've had T. elegans (western terrestrial garters) raid our pitfall traps and eat shrews and harvest mice. I have both T. elegans and T. sirtalis where I live. Worms are very seasonal and fish are few and far between. In addition to mammals, they feed primarily on reptiles and amphibians. I'm not aware of any literature documenting premature demises from garters fed primarily rodents. On the contrary, those fed feeder fish often succomb to thiamine deficiencies, worms do not provide complete nutrition, and those fed amphibians are more likely to run into problems with parasites. I currently have two T. elegans, a T. sirtalis and a western blackneck (still trying to switch him over). My original plan was to house the T. elegans together, but I had to scrap that when I read that they were the most likely garter species to turn cannibal.

-Alice

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