best garter for a beginner

[Tora]

Pretty much what my petsmart has too, but they did just have a nice albino king with blue eyes and he wasn't shedding. If I had the room for a king and didn't have the pets that I have, I probably would have gotten it. I haven't been to petco in almost a year so I don't even know if the staff changed again or if it's still the better people.

[bigsnakegirl78]

I personally prefer using overhead heating for all my snakes, and garters can deal with extremely low humidity. Mine has shed without even one piece of stuck shed in humidity 10-13%, so I don't really bother with it. Usually during the winter the room humidity is about 30-40%, so the humidity under the lamp will be about 13%. During the summer, the humidity is 50-60% and under the lamp it's 20-30%, and I also offer a humid hide which he only ever used when the moss completely dried out (I found the shed in there when I went to wet it). >.>

I also hear garters love bright lights, so I make a point to at least provide a white light with no heat, and I put it on a 12-hour cycle. The light affects my garter so much he won't eat a few hours after it turns on or a few hours before it turns off, preferring to eat in the middle of the day. He gets no heat at all during the night.

[Tora]

Thank you! I had an extra one laying around with a brand new bulb, so I was thinking "Well, I can take this $30 off and maybe get another garter!" xD

[Jeff B]

You don't want to have a snake shipped to you from a reputable breeder, but you WILL buy one from Petco or Petsmart???? This does not make sense to me. I think the only real benefit is you will save money by not paying shipping costs, not ensuring quality of the animal you purchase. Of course I am biased.

[slipknot711]

ive bought from breeders and have picked up an albino checkered from petsmart once or twice in my day. for someone getting their first garter or snake i can understand why the petstore may be more enticing. many ppl start off with animals from our "crappy" pet stores, then they learn more and more and see breeders may be the way to go.

[ObsidianDragon]

I bought a $30 garter and paid $40 in shipping, so honestly I can kind of understand the appeal. It feels weird to pay more in shipping than the dang animal costs, you know?

Plus, having an animal shipped in is daunting to a beginner. At least, it was for me!

I'm still glad I got my garter from a breeder, but after I had a lousy shipping experience (entirely due to FedEx) I'm going to have to take more steps to make sure they can't mess up next time. :|

[Tora]

Sorry. I realize now why my post seems confusing... I had a bad experience with shipping animals, supposedly my RTB pair of Chahouas got lost in the mail and I realize now that it was most likely a scam and I'm out $800, but at least going to PetCo, I can hold the animal and see how the animal acts and know what I'm paying for. I know that there are many reputable breeders out there that won't scam me, but shipping animals is kind of... not something I want to go through again.

[d_virginiana]

Even if you had a bad shipping experience, it'd still be better to deal with that anxiety and get one from a breeder. With petstores, yeah you get to see and hold the animal before you get it, but you have no idea how it's been cared for. With garters this can be more important than with a lot of other species because they eat fish and petstores tend to want to feed them rosies. You could be getting a snake with neurological damage and never know until a month or two after you get it home.
I think part of the reason you rarely see garters in petstores is bc they have a hard time keeping them healthy. If you want a quality animal you should talk to a breeder.

[Tommytradix]

imo go with thamnophis radix radix they do very well and eat great also you dont normally find anything but checkereds in pet stores so you would have to buy from a breeder

[Tommytradix]

20141031_214754-1.jpg20141006_170844-1.jpg