Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My daughter owned 3 female Garter Snakes for about 3 years. One wild caught, two captive bred. The 2 captive bred are sweet, the wild just wanted to pee and recently started to attack her so she decided to release her. This was 4 days ago. This morning, she woke to find the one female had the other by the neck. Some blood. Why did this happen? Did the release of the wild snake cause this in some way?
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1 wood turtle
4 Eastern box turtles
1 Three Toed box turtle
2 red ear sliders
2 Painted Turtles
3 Austrailian Whites and 3 Indonesian Whites and 1 Waxy Monkey
4 geckos, 4 rabbits,2hamster, 3 Garter Snakes, 3 Weimaraners, 2 kids, 1 husband

Are you absolutely, positively sure that they are all females? Maybe one had some odor from a food item on it. No need to panic in this situation, the snakes are not going to kill one another. If it eases your worries, put them in separate enclosures.
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2 tham radix
1 Chicago Tham s. semifasciatus
2 elaphe vulpina
1 gray tiger salamander
4 Aphonopelma hentzi
1 G rosea
1 Haplo minax
1 Brachy angustum
1 Brachy sabulosum
1 Brachy vagans
1 Cent. hentzi scorp

What species of garter snake are these? The wild snake most likely had nothing to do with one snake biting the other... usually it's that one snake smells food on the other and just grabs! Some species, like Wandering Garter Snakes, thamnophis elegans vagrans, are known to be cannibalistic. The wild one should have never been in with the captive bred ones though. No telling what parasites or diseases it may have been carrying...and with the other snakes being captive bred they are extremely susceptible to that. I don't think the wild snake had anything to do with your snakes attacking each other... I've only ever seen mine do that out of a feeding response. Feed them separately... it may be best to separate them completely if they are trying to eat one another. If one snake starts to swallow the other, it will kill both of them.

These snakes have lived with each other for 3 years. All lived together peacefully, never ever any fights. My question is could the release of the one snake, which one of the tamed female snakes hung out with alot, could have caused the attack. Like the stress of her best friend not being there? The food was gone about a night and a half ago. They all had full bellies/
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1 wood turtle
3 Eastern box turtles
1 Three Toed box turtle
2 red ear sliders
2 Painted Turtles
3 Austrailian Whites and 3 Indonesian Whites and 1 Waxy Monkey
3 geckos, 4 rabbits,1 rat, 2 Garter Snakes, 3 Weimaraners, 2 kids, 1 husband