Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,
I was contemplating putting a pair of garters (Oregon Redsided) in a cage together. The cage will be (it's still to be built) 36"X18"X12"...so I'm thinking that it'd be big enough to house a pair of garters, but I was wondering what might be any pros or cons to doing things this way. I'm pretty much just trying to save some room, so I can get another pair of garters (one of the impressive Eastern garter morphs or Eastern black necks), but definitely want to do what ever is in the snakes' best interest. I will be brumating the snakes during the winter and hope to be able to breed them. So, thanx ahead of time for any info. and/or advice.

----Roy Mellott

Overall it is a bad idea. They are voracious feeders and MUST be fed separately. They will eat each other. This means you need a second cage anyway. Even if you feed them on alternate days (placing one in a sack temporally) the risk is high. They often feed by sight and will attack their cage mate once it is reintroduced back into the cage. Young Garters can be housed together while they are still on fish but they must be watched. I highly recommend converting them to pinks ASAP and mice eating Garters should typically not be housed together. I keep a wide variety of Garters and this has been my experience with my Red-Spotteds. I do keep 2 common Red-Sided and 2 Florida Blues together but it takes great diligence when feeding. I have 3 Meso-American garters housed together and feeding on fish and they do ok as long as there is plenty of fish available. All my other Garters have proved too difficult to house together.

Randy
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Firehouse Herps

Thanx Randy, yeah I kind of thought this, but just thought I'd throw it out there and see what others had expierianced. Think I'll just have the cages built a foot longer to 48" and then just divide them into 20"X18" cages for the males and 28"X18" cages for the females. This will be for the best and will help me control the breeding a bit better as well.

Thanx-----Roy