Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello. Im a long time boa keeper but a new milksnake owner. I have a young Sinaloan Milksnake that I purchased about 3 weeks ago at the pet shop. It is about 13-14 inches long. Im not sure if it is stooling correctly.

My boas always make a hard single stool with some urates about 1-2 weeks after eating and that's it. This snake pee's on me when I handle it. It has done it almost every time i handle it.
I fed it two pinkies (f/t) on thursday and left it alone, now today I picked it up to handle it and it poops/pisses on me again! No hard stool, it was kind of like bird poop. There was a small amount of brown but mostly whitish yellow and chalky. It smelled like snake pee (if you're reading this, you know what that smells like.)It did not smell rotten or fouled. I can't imagine it already digested the pinkies, but I don't know if milks have much faster metabolism than boas. I have not seen a hard stool.

Sorry for all the poop/pee talk, but Is this normal behavior for a baby milk? Will it stop peeing on me or is this how milk snakes are? Also, is it possible that it has, say, diarrhea?

cage condition: 10 gal glass aquarium with a screen top that I have almost entirely covered. Heat provided by a UTH. Humidity is about 50-60% and temps are high 80's over heating pad side and about 80 on the cool side. The snake spends roughly equal time on the warm and cool side also sometimes in the middle. It loves to hide under the paper towels. I have water (bottled) out for it in a ceramic bowl and it is always fresh. I have never seen the snake soaking or drinking.

That is called musk. They do that when they are scared. It is normal.

Ahh so that's what "musk" is. How long is it going to last for? It sure is messy and smelly.

It depends. It just has to get used to being handled. It does smell pretty bad though. Usually babies do it a lot.

Sounds like you have a very healthy snake and a good set up. One thing you should be warned about is that milk snakes can get through those screen lids. I make my own lids from wood and 1/4 inch screen and i wedge them shut from the top. You can use bricks or books or what ever to weigh the screen down but this can be dangerous.I bet there isn't a milk snake keeper here that hasn't lost a snake.As far a getting slimed by your snake,don't handle it for a few days after it eats.

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~ø¿ô~Doug

Your little milk snake sounds normal.

Personally I would cool the tank off a few degrees though. You said you have the hotter side in the high 80's. I like to keep my milks in the lower 80's maybe up to 83. The cooler temp may also slow the digestion down a hair, letting it go another day before defecating.

When eating pinkies runny feces are normal. Once it starts eating food items with hair that should start to dry up a bit.