An Underrated Rack Candidate
Garter snakes don't get the same spotlight as ball pythons or boa constrictors in the rack-keeping world, but they're a genuinely practical species for rack housing — small, active, widely available, and increasingly popular with keepers drawn to their more diurnal, visually engaging behavior compared to the more sedentary species that dominate most rack rooms. If you're building a collection that includes garter snakes alongside more traditional rack species, there are a few husbandry differences worth understanding before you set up their tubs the same way you would for a ball python or corn snake.
Size and Tub Selection
Garter snakes are genuinely small-bodied — most commonly kept species and subspecies reach an adult length of 18 to 30 inches, with a slender build throughout. This puts them solidly within the range our ARS 55-Series tub was designed for. At 33 inches deep by 13 inches wide by 5.25 inches tall, used in the Core 55-5 and Glow 55-4, this tub comfortably houses a garter snake through its full adult life with room to spare, similar to how it handles other small-to-medium colubrids and small boa species in our lineup.
Because garter snakes are more active and more inclined to explore their enclosure than a naturally sedentary ambush predator like a ball python, floor space matters slightly more here even at a smaller overall body size — the 55-Series tub's generous length gives an active garter snake room to actually use its natural movement patterns rather than feeling cramped despite technically fitting.
Garter Snakes Are More Diurnal Than Most Rack-Kept Species
One of the biggest husbandry differences between garter snakes and species like ball pythons or corn snakes is activity pattern. Garter snakes are genuinely diurnal, active and visibly moving during daylight hours rather than hidden away until dusk. This makes them one of the more visually engaging species to keep in a rack system, since you'll actually see activity during normal daytime hours rather than needing to check in during evening hours to observe natural behavior.
This diurnal, basking-oriented behavior also strengthens the case for UVB more than it does with strictly nocturnal species. Garter snakes are frequently observed basking in the wild, and many keepers report more consistent activity and feeding response when UVB is part of the setup.
Water Access: The Biggest Difference From Other Rack Species
This is the husbandry point that trips up first-time garter snake keepers moving over from other colubrid species: garter snakes need meaningfully more water access than most rack-kept snakes. Many garter snake species are semi-aquatic in the wild, hunting fish and amphibians in and around water, and captive garter snakes generally benefit from a larger, more substantial water dish than what works fine for a ball python or corn snake — one large enough for at least partial submersion, not just a small drinking dish.
Within the ARS 55-Series tub's footprint, there's enough usable floor space to accommodate a properly sized water dish without crowding out hide space or thermal gradient zones, but it's worth planning for a larger water container from the start rather than defaulting to whatever small dish came with a generic reptile starter kit.
Feeding Differences Worth Knowing
Unlike most commonly kept colubrids and pythons, garter snakes are not exclusively rodent-eaters. Many garter snake species and individual animals show a strong preference for fish, earthworms, or amphibian-based diets, and some individuals never take rodent prey readily at all. This is a meaningful husbandry difference to research specific to your garter snake species before assuming a standard frozen-thawed rodent feeding schedule will work the way it does for the rest of a rack collection.
Heat and Humidity for Garter Snakes
Garter snakes are a genuinely wide-ranging group native to environments across most of North America, so exact thermal needs vary somewhat by species and locale, but a general baseline of an 82-88°F warm side with a cool side in the low-to-mid 70s°F works for most commonly kept garter snake species. Given the semi-aquatic tendencies of many garter snakes, ambient humidity can run moderately higher than what a desert species like a rosy boa would want — the 40-60% range is generally comfortable, supported by the larger water dish this species already needs.
Multiple Garter Snakes in the Same Rack Room
Garter snakes are commonly kept in larger numbers than many other species, partly due to their smaller footprint and lower individual cost, and a rack system scales particularly well for keepers building out a garter snake-focused collection. Because the ARS 55-Series tub comfortably houses this species through adulthood without a size transition, a garter snake collection can standardize entirely around the Core 55-5 or Glow 55-4, keeping both husbandry routine and rack investment simple even as the collection grows into double digits.
Common Garter Snake Species in the Hobby
Several garter snake species and subspecies are commonly available in the trade, including the common garter snake, the checkered garter snake, and various regional forms of the western terrestrial garter snake, each with slightly different color patterns and, in some cases, slightly different habitat preferences in the wild. Checkered garter snakes, for example, come from a somewhat more arid range than some other commonly kept forms and can tolerate marginally lower humidity, though the general husbandry parameters outlined here apply reasonably well across most commonly available species. As with any species showing this much regional variation, researching the specific species and locale you're keeping helps fine-tune husbandry beyond the general baseline.
Getting Started With a Garter Snake Rack Setup
If you're adding garter snakes to an existing rack collection, the main adjustments from your standard setup are a larger water dish, closer attention to whether your specific garter snake species prefers fish or rodent prey, and consideration of UVB given how genuinely diurnal this species is compared to most other rack-kept snakes.
Set up your garter snake collection with the Core 55-5 for standard housing, or the Glow 55-4 to take advantage of this species' strong daytime activity with built-in UVB capability. Building a mixed collection with larger species? The Core 70-5 and Glow 70-4 cover adult-sized housing in the same rack system.
