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.