Posted by:
jcherry
at Fri Dec 14 01:30:23 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by jcherry ]
We have been breeding black milks for over 10 years now and without a doubt as the other posters have said they are the most docile and easy to work with Milks on the planet. This year we had about 35 hatch and they range from very brightly colored hatchlings to dull drab babies. As adults thought they will end up solid black,over the years we have not seen any correlation between hatchling colors and the darkness of the babies. But then again the lines we have are both solid black. I have some intergrades with Andean Milks that were semi-black with a faint pattern but never full blooded black milk that any pattern after being mature at the age 3 - 5 years old.
Alan Kardon is a good frined and the last time I was up at the San Antonio zoo I held the big guy and I think he is still growing a bit each year. He is getting old though.
For information's sake there were two original importations of these snakes onethat went to the San Antonio zoo and the other to the Florida Zoo. The Florida's seem to be a bit smaller as a rule, but are still black. And the San Antonio line animals speak for themselves.
The animals in the US are related to one of these two lines. But both groups were fairly large so the genetics have not been a problem in either line yet.
If you get a pair of them, you will love them. But be sure and take pictures as hatchling and them every few months or so. They are truly beautiful as tri-colors, but awesome as 4 or 5 year old solid shiny black cords of steel that are 6 - 7' long.
Good Luck with your research.
John Cherry
Cherryville Farms
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