Experience share:
Perspective: this is the worst example in 4 years and 1300+ garters. Keep that in mind, as you read on.
When people tell me that they want to keep a small group of same sex garters and ask me my opinion, I ALWAYS steer them towards males.
Adult female garters can be very food aggressive. That’s not to say that males can’t or won’t, but it’s much more common and worse, with larger, stronger and more aggressive females.
Don’t let this scare you away from keeping them, but be aware that food fights are a “thing”.
Case in point: I have two adult similis that cohabitate. They do great together…99% of the time. In this case, sometime between when I fed them at around 8 pm and when we went lights out at around 11 pm, one snake must have smelled food on the other and attacked.
What you see here is evidence that this snake’s head and neck were down the throat of the other. They are virtually the same size. You can see cuts and tears in her chin and throat and lifting at the back edges of some scales. The black in between the scales is dried blood. This photo is as she was before I cleaned her up. We are keeping wounds clean and have separated her until she heals up. We’re confident that she will heal up fine, but it’s still something we need to stay on top of.
In any case, be aware of the risks and monitor them as best you can.
