Garter snake care?

[Nicky]

Sorry i know this has probably been posted befor but i did a quick search at previous posts and couldn't find anything on them so here goes...

At the last expo i found a vendor selling some beurtiful garters( i think they were easterns can't rember now) I started some basic research but was delayed because of exams and projects but now that i'm nearly done i was curious does anyone know if an adult could be housed in a 20 gal comfrontably and also do they need any additional heating or is room temp fine? And does the musking ever stop lol?
Thx alot and sry i know its annoying when people ask the same thing over and over.
Kayla:)

[Cruciform]

The ones I cared for didn't musk at all, even though they hardly got handled. It's probably just a personality thing :)

Females like hot basking spots, apparently hotter than males. They should definitely have a hot spot to rest for digesting anyway. Alan Francis's site, www.gartersnake.co.uk is very informative. Just use a light for your heat source so you don't have your garters cooking under the substrate.

As for the tank size, is the garter male or female? Females tend to be bigger. They're also very active little snakes. I kept the two of them (wild captures) together, like they were found. It was a 75 gallon tank. They regularly explored all of it, but could have made due with less.

20 should be fine for small specimens though :)

Was it Jonathan Crowe's garters you were looking at? They were awesome little things.

[Nicky]

thx alot cruciform, ya i think it might of been him because he was the only one i saw with only garters. I agree they were absolutly gorgous i wanted to buy one so bad but didn;t have the set up ready.I'll probably get a male then since they get smaller as 20 gal is all i can fit into my crammed room.
thx alot
Kayla

[JD@reptiles]

i believe there is a great site coming soon. i will post the link when its finished.

[Nicky]

thx jordan that would be great:)
Kayla

[Vanan]

Wow! Nice to see more people paying attention to the beautiful Thamnophis genus. :)

[Nicky]

there so beutiful i don't see why there not as popular as corns(lol accept maybe the musking)
rock on
Kayla:)

[Nicky]

Oh ya one more question I read you can keep about three adult females togther in a 25 gal. I'm not comfrontable with keeping sucha large number in such a small tank but i was considering keeping 2 females togther in a 25-30 gal. Would this be apporiate as i have read they are fairly social animals, and as long as are feed seperatly can function quite well togther. I know usually it's not a good idea to keep togther but wondering if these guys were an acception.
Thx alot
Kayla

[Oliverian]

I keep my two ribbons together in a large 45 gallon tank (I think!) It doesn't seem to have any detrimental effects and I don't think they're stressed as they still eat like pigs! Obviously if they're not well or if one is not eating they should be seperated but I personally find this genus does just fine together.

-TammyR

[Jonathan Crowe]

The person at the show with the garter snakes that Kayla saw was almost certainly me. The snakes were Red-sided Garters (<i>T. s. parietalis</i>), with some Wandering Garters (<i>T. e. vagrans</i>) in deli cups -- they're cannibalistic so they don't make quite as good a display as a bunch of young garters being cute in a big cage!

With any luck, the site that Jordan coyly referred to above should be launched by early next week. Not much left for me to do. The address is <a href="http://www.gartersnake.info/">gartersnake.info</a>. Among other things, it will include an expanded, updated version of my ridiculously detailed care sheet found <a href="http://www.mcwetboy.com/gartercare/gartercare.pdf">here (PDF file)</a>; I'm just finishing up a couple of new sections on breeding and raising babies right now.

I should probably mention that I don't have any breeding pairs at the moment, so once what I have is sold, that'll be it from me until I can pair up my widowed snakes. I'll be at the <a href="http://expo.reptilerescue.on.ca/">Newmarket show</a> this Saturday. End of shameless plug.

[Nicky]

Thx nice garters by the way I would go up this weekend to buy a few but i'll be in newfoundland and have no room currently for any new snakes. Can't wait for your site to be done.
Kayla:)