Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm giving serious consideration to purchasing a black milk or two. I've been interested in them for a long time, and I think I might finally be in a good position to get some. However, I'd like to get one that will mature to a solid black coloration without any lingering pattern. I was just wondering if those of you more experienced with this species could advise me on that.

I was wondering if there's anything you can look for in juveniles to predict how dark they might end up, like increased scale tipping for example. Maybe that's not even necessary since I haven't seen too many that retained any juvenile pattern. Does it seem to you that a large percentage of them end up solid and without any juvenile pattern showing through regardless of initial appearance? I see the San Antonio Zoo stock mentioned frequently-is this line known for being larger and/or darker than others?

Finally, I've read that black milks are very calm and deliberate snakes. Do they start out jumpy like most juvenile milks and mellow with age or are they relatively calm even when young? Thanks in advance for any help.

Hello,
Black milks are great snakes... if you're concerned about how dark your hatchling will get, probably the best you can do is examine (or get pictures of) the parents in bright, preferably natural light. Most adults I've seen retain a few dark grey bands across the ventral "neck" area, but it's only really evident under bright light.

San Antonio Zoo stock black milks are related to their record-holding 7'2" specimen. My '02 male is San Antonio Zoo stock, and is about 6'2". If you intend to breed them, you might want to consider picking up a completely unrelated mate... my female is from Mark Bell stock. They're very easy to breed.

Black milks start out as very tractable hatchlings (a bit flighty, but don't bite or musk) and mature into incredibly calm adults. Mine quite gracefully tolerate being handled by various people at shows for 7-8 hours at a time.

Nate

no post

I agree with Nate. Its best to look at the parents to see what they might turn out to be because they can hatch out as very brightly colored tricolors. That doesn't mean that they won't turn jet black however. The babies I produced below will be jet black as adults like the father pictured.

They're a great choice, I'm sure you would be happy with them.

Good luck,

Dave

DNS Reptiles

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