Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
Here are a few pictures of my female black milksnake at 1 year old. As you can see, she's lost nearly all of her white bands, and most of her red. I've also been charting their growth... these guys are quickly approaching the 3 foot mark! Anyhoo, here are the pics, taken outdoors in the sunlight to show off her natural iridescence.

Nate
More Pictures

First let me say...."She's lovely". But it prompts a question. I am new (with black milks). My male-who is just shy of two years lost his red first and what is left are the slowly disappearing white bands. I am curious...since yours lost the white first....which is more typical?
Frank

Thanks! From what I've read, the speed and order of the color change vary among the different lines of black milks imported into the U.S. Mine are from San Antonio Zoo and Mark Bell stock, and both lost the white bands first. The speed of the change may also be related to temperature... lower temps mean a faster change. I live in Maine, so keeping them cool is rarely a problem. My experience is fairly limited with them too, but I think it's less common for them to lose the red first. It must look pretty cool... like an eastern kingsnake? I'd be interested to know which line your black milk came from, and in seeing any pictures, if you have them.

have to disapoint you on the bloodline...I bought it at the Daytona 2002 expo as a single specimen so I didn't take the breeder's name. Right now the white is almost gone(dark gray on black),so I don't think it would photograph well. But it looked for all the world like a b/w cal king a couple of months ago. It has been kept at a steady daytime temp of 77-78F since I got it. It is 2'5"long.
Frank

I am curious where you heard that temps may affect the melanization of Black Milks. I read that statement somewhere once and mentioned it on this site. I was deluged with requests where I read that from and, try as I might, I couldn't track down the original source. Any Clues?

Just for the record, my Bell stock Black Milks lost their white (yellow) rings first.

Hello,
I've heard of people mentioning it before, here on kingsnake.com and elsewere on the web. The only caresheet that I could find that mentions a link between temperature and the rate of the ontogenetic color change is the one at centralpets.com... the link is below. Several other credible sources (ks.com caresheet, VPI caresheet, Vivarium article by Alan Kardon) don't say anything about it. I was looking around at archived versions of Critter Connection's gaigeae web page, and their original CB '96 breeders from Mark Bell and San Antonio Zoo lines took 3-4 years to turn completely black. They also say that they were keeping them relatively warm for those first few years, because they were in the 80-85 degree reptile room with all the other snakes. It wasn't until a couple years later that they started keeping the gaigeae at cooler temps, and the ones they raised later on seemed to turn black in a more reasonable amount of time.

Nate
Black Milk Caresheet