Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Recently i have really liked the look of tangerine honduran milks - is this a mutant or naturally occurring morph in nature? I understand these guys get large - how large do they get exactly? Are they fairly handleable or ornery? What do they eat as adults - rats or mice? thanks

The tangerine phase you're speaking of is a naturally occuring morph found in the lowlands of Central America's Caribbean versant. Much of this habitat is shared by equally tangerine phase Micrurus mipartitus and/or M. diastema.

-Cole

L. t. polyzona, blanchardi, and abnorma, which also inhabbit the Caribbean versant (and may all be recognized a polyzona in the near future), also come in tangerine phase.

They grow to 4-6 feet in length on average. I feed my adults several adult mice per week during their active season.

-Cole

They occur in nature along with the tri-color phase. Adult Hondurans average somewhere in the neighborhood of four feet, though I have personally seen a few six footers. As adults, they are tame, but for the first year of life or so they usually do not like being handled. I feed my adults jumbo mice or weaned rats.

Tim

This female of mine is about 5 feet long and just turned 22 years of age:

Third Eye

A 22 year old hondo! That in itself is very cool...The only thing I got around that age are box turtles.

Allen

those are some good looking snakes for sure... i may have to add on onto my list despite their size -- i found a link at "snakesofcolumbia.com" under 'micrurus' with pics of many coral sp --- yep, several sp definitely do look identical to tangerine honduran milks.... also it appears many (most?) of the central american corals do not follow the "red to yellow kill a fellow" maxim .... they must have some other rhymes around where these are found - or better yet they probably avoid all contact with banded snakes