Hello,

I have been doing a lot of research over the past month on garter snakes. I have purchased a couple books and read the care sheet here, on other websites and on breeder websites...and they all say slightly different things. I wanted to see what most of you do concerning a few different topics. I will be keeping T. sirtalis infernalis and T. sirtalis pickeringi.

Food
It seems that a varied diet is the most recommended between "safe" fish, earthworms, and rodents. What do you make the "staple" food item and do you supplement with calcium, vitamin D, and reptile multi-vitamins? I was going to switch to pinkies, but some say to not feed rodents more than twice a month due to the high fat content.

Humidity
With currently keeping all boa constrictors, I keep the humidity between 60-80% with enough ventilation so that it does not condense in the enclosure. Would this be adequate, or should it be less for garters?

Caging
I am looking at a rack system with tubs from Boaphile Plastics for my baby garters. They look great and have 3" heat tape built in, which I would control with a Herpstat 4 thermostat set to about 85-86 degrees F. I know that garter babies are better escape artists than boa babies though. Take a look at this link:
Plastic Reptile Cages, Tanks and Racks. Snake, arboreal, lizard and turtle light weight custom flexwatt heated enclosures.

I was thinking of putting a few strips of the foam weather stripping on the bottom of the tub so that it fits very snug to the top shelf and use a soldering iron to make small holes in the sides of the tubs for airflow. Would this work, or is it inevitable they would still escape between the top shelf and the tub?

Any help regarding these three topics would be appreciated.
Thank you