Hi Joe
I think that the eastern milk babies are looking for baby garter snakes primarily or really any other baby snake. It's just that in most of the easterns range garter snakes are the most common snake. I remember reading a long time ago about ringnecks being potentially toxic to other snakes and have avoided them. I guess that has proved to be false. As far as temporalis, in all the times I've looked for snakes on the coastal plain I have seen one garter snake in N.J. and one in Worcester county. So the coastal milks have adapted to lizards which are common if the habitat is still supporting milks.I tried the scent of a baby racer this year and no milk would touch it. An interesting part of the picture is that there are no wormsnakes on the island for easterns to eat yet the babies took them right away.I am curious if baby easterns would go for a newborn vole.I know that a tough adult eastern that doesn't want mice will jump at mice with shrew scent. The problem is finding shrews.
I don't think that getting a baby temporalis that was started with scented pinks will be any less of a good feeder once they go for one with no scent. The problem with waiting too long is that they start to lose weight and when they do take food the digestive enzymes in their gut may be less able to digest a pink.

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