[MnGuy]

Hi David. Welcome.

I'm a newbie garter keeper, so I'm no expert, but I wanted to respond since no one with more experience has chimed in. I've had one for about a year and another for about half a year.

I feed my snakes about every three days at this age, but I only use silversides and worms, so I can't say how many pinkies you should feed. I think the conventional wisdom is feed a snake until there's a small bulge in their belly.

People do cohabitate garters (the species not known for cannibalism, because a few are allegedly more prone to cannibalism), but you have to make sure they're the same gender and are generally the same size. I currently keep both of my female garters separately because their size difference is too large, but I plan to cohabitate.

Both of mine are still very skittish, so my taming skills aren't to be lauded. But my general thoughts are:

-Keep their tanks in a room you're in a lot. Garters are so curious and will watch you if they can. This helps them adjust to you.

-Make sure their tanks are full of hiding spots so they feel secure, which helps with taming. I like to scatter dried leaves throughout my tank because it gives them cover as they navigate between hides, their water bowls and their basking spots.

-Top-opening cages can spook garters because they're cumbersome to unlock and open. I find that my snakes flinch when I'm fumbling with the top screen and locks. I wish I had front-opening tanks like the exo-terras. I really think that would cut down on their skittishness.

-I do scoop my snakes up, which they both still hate, to handle them. I don't know that you can "coax" a snake onto your hand the way you might be able to with a mammal like a hamster. You have to be firm and quick but not grasp them too hard. My snakes both calm down in the hand, but I would like to get to a point where they aren't scared when my hand is in the tank.

-If the timing works, I like to feed my snakes right after a handling session so they hopefully associate it with a positive reward.

-Make an effort to put your hand in the tank and just leave it there without handling the snake or fussing around with the tank's items. My eastern garter is so curious she'll come check out my hand. I'm hoping it will make her less stressed about my hand. I don't want her to associate it only with being forcibly pulled from her tank. My plains garter is the opposite and hides all of the time.

I'd recommend checking out the thamnophis forum and a few thamnophis facebook pages for advice. The forum can be kind of dead, but has a lot of great information and old threads. The Facebook pages are really great and active. Definitely find someone to sex your snake. You can post several photos of the tail and vent on one of the Facebook groups.

Good luck!