I have 5 red-sided garters I decided to keep and breed this fall. I moved them into a new enclosure yesterday and was surprised to see a pair mating almost immediately - they've been in captivity for about a week. Actually, there was a big difference in the behavior of all 5 as soon as they entered the new enclosure. I'm using partially composited compost for a substrate with a generous layer of leaves in part of it. Its a fairly big cage: 4ft x 1 x 1. Its great to see them moving about more or less naturally.

I was a little surprised to see that they are not taking advantage of the warm spot under the light - only 78F there. Instead, they're hanging out at the cooler end - probably around 70F. Do you guys have an idea of the actual temp preferences of your snakes? What range of temps do you maintain, and for what species/subspecies?