u/dogdays87

Hello!!! I'm planning on getting a pet garter relatively soon and had a couple questions about care. The few care guides out there tend to be so contradictory about certain aspects of care so I'm hoping I can get a better idea of the general consensus here. Sorry in advance for the rambling mess this will probably be.

1. Cohabbing: I've seen such varied things about cohabbing. I know garters are a naturally social species in the wild, but some people will recommend against it in captivity, and others say that it's necessary to cohab for the wellbeing of the snake. Being a former rat owner, I very much understand that some animals do need friends of the same species without exception, however there is just such varied opinions about cohabbing out there I figured it would be easier to ask here and see what you all have to say. I'd love to have multiple snakes, but I don't think my enclosure is large enough for more than one (36x18x18) and it also feels a bit daunting as a new snake owner to immediately jump into having multiple in one enclosure.
2. Feeding & supplements: Okay so I know they require a varied diet and I intend on providing that with a mix of ft mice, reptilinks, thiaminase free feeder fish, worms, tilapia, etc. Basically anything I can get my hands on for them. Providing a varied diet is necessary and also sounds fun but it's a bit less straightforward than just feeding a ft mouse once a week. Should I base the frequency of feedings on the weight of the food provided? I've heard of some people offering as much food as the snake will eat for a set period of time before taking it away, is that a good option? I'm afraid of either under or overfeeding essentially, it might be helpful to hear some people's feeding routines with their own snakes to get an idea of a normal feeding schedule for a garter. In the same vein, when feeding tilapia should I stick to only farm raised to avoid parasites? Are there any downsides to feeding live feeder fish? (It sounds really fun to watch them hunt for fish on top of being a good source of enrichment.) And what supplements do you recommend? How much and how frequently? And is supplementation dependent on their diet? And lastly, I know bait shop worms and nightcrawlers are bad, what worms do you recommend and where do you recommend getting them from?
3. Heat & lighting: I think I have this one mostly figured out, but I would love opinions on the setup I decided to go with. Please let me know if I need to change anything! For a heat source I went with a basic Snake Discovery dome lamp with the 100-watt Arcadia Golden Sun Basking bulb hooked up to the Zoo Med Reptitemp Dimming Thermostat to control the temp. I opted for UVB with the Arcadia T5 ShadeDweller kit which provides 7% UVB. Both directly on the basking spot. My thermostat is programmed to keep the basking spot at 86 degrees, to ramp up for a half hour starting at 7am and ramp down for a half hour starting at 9pm for the day and night cycle. I plan on getting an LED light strip to line the top of the tank for the plants (I plan on doing a bioactive setup) and so light is distributed better on the cool side. I have a timed power center for the UVB and light strip so I can have them both turn on at 7:30am and off at 8:30pm to allow for the ramp up/down feature of the heat lamp to be effective.

Thank you so much if you took the time to read this! I'm still a while off from actually getting a snake yet while I set up the bioactive enclosure and allow for it to cycle and get established, but I want to make sure I feel fully confident in my knowledge of care as much in advance as possible.