Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi i am just wondering what kind of temps garters need? is room temp ok? and will they live together? 2 or more garters? aand what do they eat? i have a wild caught baby...looks like it could handle a pinky...and i plan on getting more to breed...and some for my king...soo if anyone could help me with the temps? im pretty sure room temp is fine thanks for the help in advance...
ChuckY

i keep mine at 75 to 80 and i feed them rosy reds frogs salamanders worms i havent gotten mine to eat pinkys yet and i keep four in the same cage without any problems

cool i wanna catch some adults so i can breed and keep some babys for my king lemmewinks...i think ill release the ones i dont use though rather then keep them ne way sounds good thanks for the help...ill get some food for it tonight at work and try to get it to eat...will meal worms work? ne way thank you for the help
Chuck

First, you will have a hard time getting your garters to eat meal worms. Of all my garters not one has excepted a meal worm in its life. Pinkies are occasionally excepted but usually must be scented for the first few times. I feed mine a staple of rosy minnows red wiggler worms and tad poles with occasional supplementation of small 6 dollar frogs.
Second, Be vary careful feeding garter snakes to your kingsnake. In many regions it is illegal to catch or kill wild herpetofauna. Since what you are planning to do should be considered killing I would suggest against it strongly. Also any diseases those garter snakes have (for instance internal parasites) will imediatelly be transferred to the kingsnake.
I would suggest feeding your kingsnake a staple diet of rodents from a pet store. You can sprinkle a vitamin supplement on the mice/rats to ensure proper nutrition.
Also you should note that the common kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula- the one you have) does not commonly consume snakes in the wild- it feeds mostly on rodents and lizards.
There is no shortage of mice in this world but there is a shortage of snakes. Young herpers would like to go out and catch those garters. Feed rodents because it is safe and protects our wild herp population which is extremely important to most of the people on this site.

Agreed. Well said. There is no reason to feed snakes unless the snake that you are feeding refuses all other food items. And in that case, you could freeze one snake and just scent with it. Many times, kings and other ophiophagus snakes will not take natricines (garters/waters) for some reason or another. Or at least that is what I have seen time and time again. I have never had a king reject rodents though. They ALWAYS take rodents, even freshly caught kings. So, as the other poster mentioned, just give it commercially raised rodents. No reason to give it snakes really...
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Andy Maddox
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Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

If you steal in hunger, I will kick you when you try. These stand for me. Name your god and bleed the freak. I'd like to see. How you all would bleed for me.-Alice In Chains

80 degrees is generally adequate for Garter snakes and a temperature gradient is recommended though not always as important as it is in some colubrids. If you can supply a warm end of 80 and a cool end 0f 70-75 that should be fine. Night time temps can be around 70 or a little more. Feed your Garter freshwater fish or better yet, scented pinkies. Most Garters will eat pinkies. As far as housing them together it is usually fine but a few garter species will resort to cannibalism. Your Kingsnake will do much better on a rodent diet. There is a very high risk of transferring internal parasites when feeding cold blooded prey to snakes. Plus rodents are much more balanced nutritionally for a snake. If you collect snakes to feed another pet you may very well be violating state law. Feeding snakes to another doesn’t mean you can skirt possession limits which are meant to reduce over collection of wild animals. It is usually illegal to release captive born animals as well. Your best bet is to stick to a rodent diet for your king and keep a legally collected garter or two as a pet. Garters are every bit as interesting and enjoyable as any other snake. There are many hobbyists who specialize in them. There are many resources on Garter snake husbandry as well that can be interesting.

Randy Hallman