Nelsons are great snakes! They are also very communal. If you keep some together, they will pile up under a hide and be very considerate of one another. Same with Sinaloans. Frankly, I cannot always tell much difference between the two other than amount of black on the bands.

Years ago I was in Nayarit near the coast. I believe this is an area where sinalonae and nelsoni ranges meet, could be wrong. I saw a road kill. Pattern wise, it did not look like sinaloans in the hobby, nor quite like nelsons. It had more bands, and the black was thick like nelsons compared to sinaloans. I saw a locality nelsoni once, and its body shape was a bit less lengthy - more stout.

The hobby has what it has, probably snakes from very few actual localities, so we do not see the wider range of looks from wild snakes. Also, who knows who bred what to what back then. Early importers of these snakes did not always know the exact area they came from.

Sinaloans occupy drier habitat in the north end of their range where the really hi-red/low black individuals are, and go into sub-tropical in the south. Nelsoni shoot inland and begin to get very dark with more black than red in some localities.

Personality-wise, nelsons/sinaloans can get like cornsnakes, just really easy-going captives that do not musk you or bite, maybe a tad active when held, but still pretty darn calm for a milksnake.

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