Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have acquired a neonate sold as a Nelson's Milk Snake, however as it matures the patterning looks more like a Pueblan. How does a person differentiate between Nelson's and Pueblan milk snakes (patterning, scalation, etc.)?

Posting photos of your animal would be a great help in it's identification.

Pueblan milks (L. t. campbelli) tend to have rings of all three colors approximately the same width. Nelson's milks (L. t. nelsoni tend to have red rings which are the widest, and white (or yellowish) rings which are the narrowest. Both subspecies may or may not have the black crossing over the red on the dorsal surface. Snout pattern, body build, etc. are also useful, but hard to explain without visual aids (which I can't access at the moment).

Please be aware that a number of unscrupulous breeders have crossed the two forms and sold the resulting offspring as one subspecies or the other. This really complicates the issue...

-Cole

Sunherp, thanks. I believe I have a pueblan. I will post a pic as soon as I can figure out how. I am new to the forum and learning.

This might be a nelson/pueblan cross, not sure. The more stocky build reminds me of Pueblan, whereas the band colors look like nelsoni. And it feeds like a retic, lol. Found it left behind when someone bailed on their home. It was the size of a night crawler, that was a year ago.

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Mark