My friend lives only a few blocks away from me - very close to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. He is not a fan of snakes. About a month ago, he found a DeKay's Snake while cutting the lawn. He manuvered it into a 5-gallon bucket for me to see when I stopped by the following day. The snake was later released in his yard, where he found it.
On Saturday he called to tell me that on the previous night he came home to find his cats playing with something on the dining room floor. That "something" was a snake. My friend understood snakes being outside, but getting in the house? That was something new. The cats are not allowed outdoors, so they didn't bring it in. He called me and said he had the snake in a bucket.
When I went over to see it, I reckoned it would be just another DeKay's Snake (not that there's anything wrong with that). I was quite surprised to find this young Eastern Milk. I've never found one in my 40 years of herping Cleveland proper (I've caught plenty outside of city limits, though).
The question is often asked as to what young milks eat and the answer is usually "lizards, preferably small skinks." Well five-lined don't live in this part of the state, but when the Eastern coughed up a partially digested DeKay's Snake, it offered some good information as to what the diet of these snakes are when the don't reside in "lizard territory."
Tim
Third Eye
