Snakes per tank?

[GarterGirl]

One of the things I love about garter snakes (most of them, anyway), is that they can be kept in groups, and actually seem to do better in groups. When I was a kid, we had a checkered female that we aptly named Mamasan. Had her tail not been cut, she would have been a record for the state of Texas. Within a month of getting her, she had 42 babies- and we had a bit of a situation. How do you house 42 babies? We tried leaving them together, which worked for the first two months, but after that we had to start separating them into smaller groups to avoid cannibalism just before feeding time. In the end, we worked out that 6 snakes per tank seemed to be a good number.

How many garters have you had in a tank at once? What kind of issues did you have to deal with? What have you found to be the ideal number of snakes per tank?

[Concept9]

You should NEVER (other than breeding) have more then one snake per enclosure.

If one gets sick, diseased or gets mites they all will.

[nyx]

Originally Posted by MBK Boy

You should NEVER (other than breeding) have more then one snake per enclosure.

If one gets sick, diseased or gets mites they all will.

Garters do quite well in groups, and are noted - as the OP said - for being kept that way.

[Concept9]

Originally Posted by nyx

Garters do quite well in groups, and are noted - as the OP said - for being kept that way.

I was not referring to the social abilities If you read carefully what I wrote.

[KORBIN5895]

Originally Posted by MBK Boy

You should NEVER (other than breeding) have more then one snake per enclosure.

If one gets sick, diseased or gets mites they all will.

Sorry but you don't know what you are talking about...

[Concept9]

Originally Posted by KORBIN5895

Sorry but you don't know what you are talking about...

So garter snakes cannot catch disease or get mites from one another ?

[poison123]

Originally Posted by MBK Boy

So garter snakes cannot catch disease or get mites from one another ?

That is why you quarantine the snakes before putting them in together.

[Concept9]

Originally Posted by poison123

That is why you quarantine the snakes before putting them in together.

I stand corrected, my apologies to all then.

[GarterGirl]

Originally Posted by MBK Boy

You should NEVER (other than breeding) have more then one snake per enclosure.

If one gets sick, diseased or gets mites they all will.

As stated, quarantine tanks help keep the spread of any parasites or diseases down. It is an issue with garters, but I am always very careful about quarantine.

Beyond that, garters can actually have more problems by being alone, particularly the babies which get very nervous and stressed if they don't have a few of their litter mates with them.

[infernalis]

right now I have several totes with 7-8 babies each in them.

I housed six in a big 55 gallon once, but it got tedious for me seperating them all at feeding time.

Now I tend to keep 2 adults together at a time.