Garter Snakes At Petco: Find Out If Your Slithery Friend Awaits You!

Petco offers many pets plus pet supplies, but they don’t have everything. Does Petco sell garter snakes? Do they make good pets?

I got my pet garter snake at Petco a few years ago and I trust them for everything I need for my snake. Sometimes, you might have to buy something somewhere other than Petco, but they usually have what you want. 

Where Do You Get Garter Snakes?

You can find garter snakes at Petco and many other pet stores. You can also get them from a snake breeder. There is a huge price range, with the average price being much closer to what cheaper snakes cost. 

Garter Snakes at Petco

Your local Petco is likely to have snakes, including garter snakes and water snakes. Snakes are much less common that cats or dogs, but they are still fairly common pets you can easily find in pet stores.

Will Petco Always Have Garter Snakes?

Garter snakes may not always be available at any location. You might search for garter snakes at a certain location online and not find any available in-store. They might offer pythons, corn snakes, and other reptiles, but not garter snakes. 

How Much is a Pet Garter Snake?

Most pet snakes are cheap, but some cost a lot more. An average pet snake costs less than $100, some pet snakes cost $1,000. 

Garter Snakes cost $20 to $300 and are in the middle of the price range. Don’t expect to have to spend 300 dollars, they are not expensive animals. 

Corn snakes are more expensive – anywhere from 40 to 1000 dollars. Two snakes of the same breed might sell for very different prices. The price of a garter snake at Petco varies by location. 

Costs of Owning a Snake

You also have to pay for food, heating, and substrate. Food is cheap because snakes don’t eat much, and heating is a bit more expensive because they are cold-blooded and depend on it.

Substrate (the moss, bark, and sand at the bottom of a snake cage) is also cheap. Veterinary care can make owning a snake more expensive. The total monthly cost of owning a snake is $400 to $1500 per year, often quite a lot more than the cost of buying a snake. 

While you can find a common garter snake for $20 or $50, not everyone can afford to take care of one. There are also initial costs, such as a cage, heating lamps, and water bowls. 

The annual costs may be:

• $110 to $475 for initial supplies (less than that after the first year)
• $120 to $240 per year for food
• $70 to $200 per year to maintain the environment (replace the light bulb, replace the substrate, get a bigger cage) 
• $120 to $300 for general healthcare
• $40 to $100 for checkups
• $80 to $200 per year for emergency care

Is it Ok to Keep a Garter Snake As a Pet?

Garter snakes are also reasonably safe because a garter snake bite won’t kill or seriously hurt you. They do have venom, but a small amount of relatively weak garter snake venom can’t easily harm a human.

The venom is mild enough that they were falsely thought to be non-venomous until recently. Pet garter snakes are not aggressive and are not likely to bite you or anyone else. Garter snakes raised in captivity trust humans and are ok with being handled. 

What Do Garter Snakes Eat?

In the wild, garter snakes eat whatever animals and smaller creatures they can catch in their environment. They will eat slugs, lizards, worms, frogs, rodents, and minnows. 

Snakes never eat any plants, they are all carnivores. Don’t try to feed any plant foods to your garter snake. Snakes don’t chew their food and have short digestive tracts that can’t deal with plant matter.

You can feed a young garter snake fish foods like guppies, minnows, and pieces of fish fillet. They also eat worms. Grown garter snakes should eat rodents and only need to eat once a week.  

Where to Buy Food for a Garter Snake?

You can find food for a garter snake at Petco and other pet stores. Petco sells packaged rats and mice, which are the best food for mature garter snakes. Petco recommends that you feed them earthworms and occasionally goldfish. 

About Garter Snakes

Garter snakes are common mostly harmless grass snakes that many people keep as pets. In many places, from Canada to as far south as central America, they are the most common snake. 

They are small (usually less than 40 inches) and vary greatly in size. Unlike many other snakes, they give birth to live young instead of laying eggs.

While a few types of garter snakes are threatened or endangered, garter snakes are still very numerous in the wild. Some breeds make better pets than others because they are not aggressive. 

Are There Different Species of Garter Snakes?

Garter snakes are not a single species, there are about 35 different species of garter snakes. The number can change because biologists may change their minds about whether two slightly different types of garter snakes are different species. 

Will a Garter Snake Shed its Skin?

Mature garter snakes shed their skin two or three times a year. Spring and late summer are the most common times for shedding. Growing garter snakes shed their skin much more often, sometimes once every four or five weeks. 

What is a Corn Snake?

A corn snake is a small type of rat snake native to North America. They are constrictor snakes, so they kill prey by coiling around them. They are not venomous and live for 20 years. 

Do Corn Snakes Make Good Pets?

Yes, corn snakes as well as garter snakes make good pets. They do not get too large, are not aggressive, and aren’t hard to take care of. 

What is a Ball Python?

Ball pythons or royal pythons are non-venomous pythons that live in central and west Africa. They kill prey only by constricting. 

They are rather large, growing up to 6 feet long. Many people keep them as pets if they want larger snakes. 

Why Have a Pet Snake Instead of Another Animal?

A pet snake can keep you company while being easier to care for than a dog. You don’t have to take a snake out for walks. 

Key Takeaways

• Yes, you can purchase a garter snake at Petco and many other stores. 
• Find some information about how to care for a snake properly first. 
• You need to provide adequate bedding and make sure your snake is fed properly.
• Do some reading and find accurate information about snake care first.
• You can find ball pythons, garter snakes, and other unusual pets at pet stores.