Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In honor of February and the traditional MILKATHON I would like to post a question to those with NA milks--what adult retains the best/most WHITE?? I think some pales should be the cleanest, but I want to see pics of adult animals as most gray-up pretty good. Maybe some red milks in there? Maybe some easterns? Gentilis? Lets see some pics! Jeff

Sorta cheating but heh -- betcha he stays white!

Wow, such a pretty hypo!

He is in the middle of a nice growth spurt...but has to get much bigger if I intend to breed him back to mom next year.

A nice red hypo female

Hmmm, white? I don't think I have any thing in my collection as white as Chris's hypo temp, or as white as Jeff S. hypo syspila, (which by the way Jeff that is a screamer if ever there lived one). Let me see what I can come up with.

Thomas co. multistrata

Cherry co. female

Another Cherry co.

I have a few hypo syspila myself.

Sorry Jeff, only a neonate.

I have been working on this little gentilis most the winter to take a pinkhead. Last week he took his first one, and yesterday he took another one. Love his white snout. Peace, -Dell

Terry, everyone knows you have some very cool locale milks. Can you tell me if any of your ADULT cherry counties retain that kind of white? Thanks for the props on that hypo red, she should be big enough to breed next season, and honestly she is clean but its more of a tan than WHITE. The eastern I have there is more white...but again isnt a adult and will gray up likely. Cleanliness is really nice despite actual color....though thats what changes in adults. I am kinda waiting for some NC coastals to show up.......

here's a adult male tyrell.
Shannon

Jeff, I'd say most adults in my collection have varying degrees of newsprinting in them. I find the darkened scale centers interesting from animal to animal. For me newsprinting is a moot point. And here's why.

Here is an adult Bighorn female that looks really gray in this first photo, but really is a very nice solid looking animal in hand. I think the two photos show how varied the colors can be on a single animal.

This subadult hopper eating Cherry co. female is one of the brightest white Pales I own. But has heavy newsprinting on her side, but viewed dorsally the white really stands out.

An over all white look is nice but how about yellow. A lot of the multistrata I see have awesome yellow pigment to them. I really tend to like annulata, amaura, and celaenops because of the yellow they can have on them.
Bighorn co. adult

Stillwater co. adult, I know you have all seen him before, but I really like how yellow he is.

Celaenops male

We need Cole and Jeff H. in here, they have great looking yellow Milks.

O.K., I've talked myself out, so I'll end w/ this photo of one of Cole's Pales. I have never seen a multistrata w/ this kind of saddle before.

Dell, remember the MILKSNAKES OF NORTH AMERICA poster from about 1989? The pale milk on that poster is amazing, but even that one doesnt compare to the last one in your post. Brian Mason had some, so they do exist without the newsprint. But thats what is really nice about milks....they are variable enough that we can all like something different. Except for NC coastals,lol,we ALL like them!

That last little critter sure is a looker. Keep your fingers crossed that he's even 1/2 as good looking as an adult! His sisters are nice, too, but don't have any traces of the pattern anomalies that that guy has. Rumor has it that an even "stripier" male hatched along with that one, but it's owner is currently out of the country... LOL

I've got to get some photos loaded and new ones taken. Give me a few days and I'll see what I can come up with.

-Cole

Those multistrata are smokin Terry! Randy W.

Glad you could find some 'decent' pics! Wow those are all amazing multistrata... furthermore I think I'm caving in on needing both pales and hypo syspila! Great animals!!

Chris

Thanks Chris and Randy.

Chris you really should get some multistrata in your collection. You won't regret it. And I need to put some temporalis in mine.

-Dell

Although I may not deserve to... I was amidst what was looking like a quick move and started to sell off some of the collection... I've been kicking myself in the rear for this, as well as, a few others. Long story short -- everything got delayed but not before the first batch of animals was sold and shipped. The lighter animal is a Mason stock Sheridan, NE female and the other a male, a Pennington, SD. Both were amazing snakes and the female perhaps one of my favorites all-time. Great demeanor and beautiful! I was planning on assembling a small colony around them but since they were not part of a full on project they got the axe and I get the regrets!!
The temps are really great to have around actually -- you really should dive in! I'm still ringing from getting rid of my two but yeah I definitely want some nice pales as well as some Golden, CO gentilis. Matter of fact lump in some AL intergrades, some KY or southern IL locale syspila, some hypo syspila -- these posts made my mind up for me haha, and well a half dozen others! I have to find the 'off switch' -- think I may need to seek out professional help on this!!

Have a good one,
Chris

Nice animals! That Sheridan Co., NE animals is stunning, and the SD critter is quite similar to the colony I work with. Who did they go to, if you don't mind me asking? Also, where did the SD animal come from? Was it one from Walt's stock?

-Cole

I have a nice white one , but it's definately cheating, and he's not quite an adult yet.
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Joe

The criteria is white, with no (or little) newspapering or graying? Hmmmm... Often the whitest adults have tons of newsprinting on their sides, but a clean dorsum. I personally don't mind graying (over-all wash of melanin) or newspapering (darkened scale centers) which can actually develop seperately, in my experience. Most of my adults are still in cooling, but I'll put up a few old, already-posted photos.

A little male multistrata (adult, but small) with a very clean, cream color

A very attractive, but heavily grayed and newspapered multistrata

A male multistrata with heavy newspapering and some graying on the sides, but an immaculate dorsum

Another multistrata with slight newspapering, but no over-all melanin wash

Already posted but I'm rather optimistic about this lil' pair.

Chris

If not for my personal favorite REDHEADS, nothing beats a nice white mask on a NC. Nice snake!

This girl is pretty white so far.

Hypo red milk

NP