Re: Anyone house diff types garters together?

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Posted by Bianca on March 09, 2003 at 15:54:34:

In Reply to: Re: Anyone house diff types garters together? posted by greg woodie on March 08, 2003 at 21:35:49:

:::Hi:
::i kept a few years ago all different types of garter together , i had eastern, plains, checkered,ribbons,etc and i never had any problems with them together but during feeding time you have to watch them. but besides that everything should be ok. try to keep them all the same sex you dont want to produce by accident hybrids.

::I imagine aslong as same size and feeding is supervised
::shouldnt be a problem or am I wrong?
::: Thanks.
::: Bianca

::
::
:i currently have 1 Western Ribbon just under 2 feet, 1 Eastern Garter about 13 inches and 1 Florida Blue Garter about 13 inches. i keep them all together except during feeding. i'm a living witness to the frenzy that ensues when they're fed together. a local pet store where i live had several baby Ribbons together in a tank at one time. one day i was there when they were being fed. the person feeding them just 'dumped' a dozen or so little tiny rosy reds in the water dish. what happened next was startling and sort of funny. 2 or 3 of the little Ribbons raced to the dish to investigate. at the same time, some of the fish were jumping out of the dish. 1 snake grabbed a fish and another snake started chasing him around the tank! it was kind of funny watching this snake running like crazy with his head held high and his food in his mouth. meanwhile, 2 other snakes grabbed the same fish and were tumbling around and playing 'tug of war'. i stood and watched as 1 snake got the upper 'hand'(haha!) and swallowed the fish and started swallowing the snake on the other end!! this is where the fun stopped and i yelled for the employee. luckily, he was able to break them up in time. i had a similar thing happen when i was a kid: i had 2 small Easterns eating the same earthworm once and 1 would most likely have swallowed the other had i not intervened. these were small snakes. i can only imagine what it would be like with adults! so, just to be on the safe side, i feed individually now and i suggest you do the same. little Garters and Ribbons are too cute to eat each other up!
:
: enjoy your snakes!
: greg

thanks alot good thing you were there to or one might have eaten the other.i suspected it would be ok aslong as feed seperately.
Bianca

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