Yah the females are generally much less nervous and flighty than the males, but I do have certain males that I much rather handle than certain individual females, and as a single pet the females do get bigger and require a bit more care because they eat and poop more, but overall I think if I were getting a single garter snake to have as a pet I would still take my chances with a captive born female hatchling, and definately wouldn't waste time with a wild caught, thats a headache waiting to happen and hard to justify when captive born babies are so readily available. Just my two cents
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com