Housing Multiple Snakes

[pittylova]

As I mentioned in my last (and first) post, I'm extremely new to snakes. I was looking into corn snakes and doing research on them prior to me catching this little garter. Now that I see how much of a variety there is I'm really interested in them. In researching other species of snake many sources said not to house them together unless breeding. What about garters? I noticed a lot of what I researched just talked about tank sizes. Is it ok to house multiple garters? What about different types of them? Would it have to be 2 Easterns, or could it be an Eastern and another subspecies requiring the same environment?

[jitami]

It could be different species/subspecies just make sure they're the same sex so you don't end up with little hybrids :) Vagrans(Wondering Garter Snakes) are known to be cannibalistic. To play it safe you should avoid housing a vagrans with a cage mate. Having the snakes be approximately the same size is always a good idea and feed separately. Hope that helps :)

[pittylova]

Thank you for the advice jitami. I'm going to wait until I have the anole/tree frog vivarium complete and am going to update their 55Gal for this snake. Then I'll look into getting another of the same size. Another quick question about housing them. I know that water dishes are a must, but what about water features? Is there a depth that's really too deep? I have a water feature in the tank he'll go in and am unsure if I should remove it although I really like my stream/waterfall lol.

[ssssnakeluvr]

they are all good swiimmers....just make sure he is able to get out of the water dish.

[infernalis]

Water features are great, However be extra careful, inspect everything, if your snake can fit inside the plumbing anywhere on the water feature, it can wind up inside a pump impeller, and killed.

Ensure that the intake fittings all have screens to prevent entry.

[pittylova]

I was actually thinking about that as far as the water feature goes. I have a shrimp in it for clean up and it likes to hide in the holes in the waterfall. I'll have to plug all of thsoe up.