Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, I'm sure my place isn't a zoo compared to some of you guys, but I have a small appartment.

I bought a new snake this evening. Damn those pet stores. I should learn self control and buy from a reputable breeder instead. But I couldn't bring myself to leave this little guy to whatever clueless person might buy him.

Speaking of clueless... I'm not sure what kind of milk he is. At first glance, I want to say Sinaloan, but I know there are similar ones out there, and I'm pretty new to milks. The girl at the store thought he might be Pueblan.

Anyone know what he is?

This pic was taken right after I got him home. I have a better cage all ready to go, so please don't mark me down for him being in that aweful little thing.

Yup, once you get them in your hands you'll take'em home. I think you are correct with Sinaloan Milk I.D. could be a Nelsons. Though I'm not good at telling the difference between those two.
Keep'em fat and happy

I've done a bit of research since that first post. Definantly -not- a Pueblan like the girl at the store thought.

I'm pretty sure it is a Sinaloan, which is what I've been wanting. Nelsons seem to have slightly wider bands a bit closer together. The Sinaloans I've compared them to have a little narrower bands a bit farther appart.

Obviously, I don't really know what I'm talking about, but that's my observation.

Yep, thats a Sinaloan for sure, and looks ike a nice healthy one. I hear ya on the Pet stores...although most of them get theirs from breeders, and it saves you the shipping and you get to see it up close, so not always a bad thing.

Scott

The shipping cost was a big reason why I bought him at the pet store. It really bugs me to think that I could buy two snakes for what it costs to ship one.

Showing my ignorance again here... the girl at the pet store said she'd just fed him three pinky mice. Since my other snake was eating fuzzies when I got him, I probably have an innacurate idea of how big pinkies are. Three seems like a lot for a snake that size. Or is that a good number?

I hear ya about "rescuing" pet store animals. I've done it myself too many times to admit. Some argue that this practice backfires by enabling the store to continue to offer animals. In speaking with a PetCo manager, he was convinced that in his store, the far majority of folks buying reptiles are non-herper parents with kids as opposed to avid herpers, so that "rescue buys" aren't the main incentive for the store to offer reptiles. I tend to agree for the most part.

They probably carry reptiles so they can make a killing on supplies and food.

Looking at the PetCo stores around here, I'd have to agree that they make thier money off supplies, and possibly dog grooming. They have a few token animals around, but the vast majority of the store is occupied by supplies.

I can't complain too much about PetCo, since they seem to at least have some idea what they're doing. It's the mall pet stores that I really dislike.

I buy crickets from a mall store, so I'm in there fairly often, and there's only one or two people that have any idea how to care for the animals, and the cages are all inadequate. Those stores seem to make thier money off of "disposable" animals more than anything else.

the chain pet stores arent good at all. they will sell you an unhealthy imported ball python for 100 dollars, and albino corns for about 50. they try to rip off those who dont know any better. alot of pet store employees also give you false information to make you buy it.

a while back i was looking into a sand boa as a second snake and my mom went to a petstore on a mall trip to see if they had one, she called me and told me they had "regular" boas, so i told her i wasnt looking for something big and she replied "the guy here says they are about the same size as ball pythons"
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jake

my addiction:
0.0.2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1.0 amelenistic corn snake (zyklon)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

Looks like a Sinaloan to me..

I have to disagree-that's either a nelson's or (more likely) a nelson's/sinaloan cross. The red bands are way too narrow for a pure sinaloan. It's a darn shame, but it's rapidly becoming nearly impossible to find pure, "classic" sinaloans like we used to see in the 70s and early 80s (well before nelson's became available in significant numbers. Just a short time browsing the classifieds can be quite discouraging-only about one out of ten "sinaloans" look to be reasonably pure examples.

Brad Chambers

I'm a little confused. From what I've observed, Nelsons had wider bands than Sinaloans. Do you have some example pics that I can compare? I'd like to learn how to identify them correctly.

I'm not surprised-almost all "sinaloans" nowadays are crossbreeds. But if you go back to some of the early publications the difference is pronounced. Check out Markel's "Kingsnakes and Milksnakes' (TFH publications, 1990)for a good comparison. Another more recent source is "kingsnakes and Milksnakes" (Barrons), which illustrate a fairly good example of a pure sinaloan on page 37. If you don't mind wading through a more technical tome, then I highly recommend "Systematics and Natural History of the American Milksnakes, Second Edition" (Milwaukee Public Museum, 1988).

If you look at any of these sources, you'll see what i mean-red band width in the sinaloan is almost twice that of the nelsons, and the triad count is lower.

Thanks!
Brad Chambers