Housing Central American garters with other species

[RedSidedSPR]

I'm hoping to get a scotti within the next few months, but I wanna make sure that they can be housed with.. normal.. Species. I.e. parietalis, concinnus etc. just making sure there's not anything different in care?

[guidofatherof5]

Hoping to get a couple scottis myself this Fall.
Awesome snakes. I'm sure someone more familiar with their care will answer that question soon.

[Steveo]

S. Felzer gave me one with my order of NA species and said they could be housed together. Then I dropped her and she disappeared :mad:

[thamneil]

I have a pair coming with my order. I plan to house them with the others.

[annulataarethebest]

At one point I was keeping blackbelly garter snakes with santa cruz garter snakes and a eastern blackneck garter. The only problems they seemed to have was fighting for food, but that's to be expected when you keep multiple snakes in the same enclosure.

[chris-uk]

I've got my Cuitzeos with respective male and female radix so that they have company. No problems and I keep them in the same conditions as the other garters. No problems, other than the female Cuitzeo being more subdued since she moved in with the radix female. One thing to bare in mind is that the Mexican garters are relatively large when fully grown, so you probably wouldn't want them housed with Northwestern Garters.

[RedSidedSPR]

Alright good to know. thanks

And yeah size won't be a problem

[-MARWOLAETH-]

I've read that they are more resistant to scale rot and other skin diseases so you could give them a larger water basin than other Thamnophis.

[RedSidedSPR]

I don't have much of a choice in water bowl size. It's pretty big now, we'll just go with this

[chris-uk]

I've read that they are more resistant to scale rot and other skin diseases so you could give them a larger water basin than other Thamnophis.

They like their water! I can speak for Cuitzeos which I've seen spend over 8 hours in a water bowl without coming out. In the wild Cuitzeos spend a lot of time in Lake Cuitzeo hunting fish.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

They like their water! I can speak for Cuitzeos which I've seen spend over 8 hours in a water bowl without coming out. In the wild Cuitzeos spend a lot of time in Lake Cuitzeo hunting fish.Have you seen them luring fish with their tail yet?That would be great to see.

[chris-uk]

Have you seen them luring fish with their tail yet?That would be great to see.

They haven't had the opportunity. The water bowl is too small for any hunting behaviour. If I want to try I'd have to get the old 60l aquarium running and drop in Lacrimosa (the female seems more canny and sharp than the male) and a couple of guppies. I think even a 60l aquarium is too small, the other option is the bath... Char would be likely to veto me feeding a snake in the bath. The issue is really that a Cuitzeo with fish in a small volume of water seems like shooting fish in a barrel (no evidence for this, they may struggle to catch guppies) and guppies may not naturally show any interest in the tail like the native fish in the wild.

[johnc79@hotmail.com]

I'm hoping to get a scotti within the next few months, but I wanna make sure that they can be housed with.. normal.. Species. I.e. parietalis, concinnus etc. just making sure there's not anything different in care?

I think it can be done with males as size wise there not much bigger than the "normals". Saying that males are shy and could be out done at feeding. The problem with females they can be much bigger than females of other garters and very aggressive at feeding time. I did keep my cuitzeos in single sex groups with atratus but found it more trouble than it's worth. I'm not saying it can not be done but in my experience it would be better keeping them with other central American thamnophis species of similar size and behavior. Brumation is different to as there winters are warm days cold nights.

[RedSidedSPR]

I drop some guppies in there for mine every now and then, they love it.

If scotti like the water that much I'll definitely upgrade the water bowl at some point.. didn't realize they loved water that much.


I think it can be done with males as size wise there not much bigger than the "normals". Saying that males are shy and could be out done at feeding. The problem with females they can be much bigger than females of other garters and very aggressive at feeding time. I did keep my cuitzeos in single sex groups with atratus but found it more trouble than it's worth. I'm not saying it can not be done but in my experience it would be better keeping them with other central American thamnophis species of similar size and behavior. Brumation is different to as there winters are warm days cold nights.

Well, I can always seperate him if need be. He would be in with a male concinnus and a checkered, maybe even just the concinnus... they would all be males with plenty of room. knowing the concinnus, he won't be a problem, we'll see how the new guy is. I think i'll go ahead and house them together.. but I'll keep that in mind thanks