This study investigates the complex dynamics of dust ion-acoustic waves (DIAWs) in a non-Maxwellian plasma, comprising stationary negatively charged dust grains, dynamical positive ions, and inertialess hot Maxwellian electrons and cold generalized (r, q)-distributed electrons. Our investigation is motivated by observations of the Cassini spacecraft in Saturn’s magnetosphere. We aim to analyze the formation and interaction of multiple solitons within this plasma system by employing the reductive perturbation method (RPM) to reduce the fluid equations to the Gardner equation (GE). Subsequently, Hirota’s bilinear method is applied to obtain the multiple soliton solutions for the GE. This study is the first to explore the existence of multiple soliton solutions within the GE framework in a plasma context. Consequently, it will gain a commendable standing among several researchers studying fluids, explicitly focusing on plasma physics. Furthermore, we examine the influence of the nonthermal population of electrons on soliton propagation and their interaction. The findings presented in this paper provide valuable insights into the behavior of dust ion-acoustic (DIA) Gardner solitons in space plasmas and offer a comprehensive analysis of their interaction dynamics. This study is anticipated to pave the way for other researchers to investigate the dynamical scenario of the propagation and interaction of multiple soliton waves in various plasma systems.