Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum and new to Thamnophis. I just picked up a young (1 year old) Puget Sound female from a breeder on Sunday. I'm already loving this little one's personality - I think I'm hooked on garters now.

I'm already very experienced with snakes, and own a small colony of green tree pythons as well as a couple other boids. I've also kept North American ratsnakes before. But, I'm completely new to Thamnophis and wondering about a few things.

First, when folks on this forum mention "juvenile" and "subadult" and "adult" garters, what age ranges are we talking? I'm not familiar with the growth rate or lifespan of garters. In most boids, a one-year-old is a juvi, but I'm guessing that in garters, my one-year-old is possibly a subadult?

When feeding, do you typically feed as much as the snake will eat in a sitting? I dropped 10 feeder guppies in a dish for my Puget yesterday. She ate 5, then stopped and went to bask, so I removed the others. I have the ingredients for Tilapia/Salmon jello in my fridge right now, so I'm going to try and switch her to that as soon as I can.

At what age do you consider the snake large enough to move into its final enclosure/vivarium? My plan is to build a large display viv with live plants and a small community of female garters (3 - 4). My little one is still only 8" long (which seems small for a yearling Puget, can anyone advise on this?) but highly active.

Thanks for any suggestions or information. I'm really enjoying this little snake, and really wish that garters weren't so underrated in the hobby!