Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This past summer I hatched out a beautiful clutch of 8 baby eastern milks. I tried frogs, lizards, and even crickets which ended up chewing threw their eyes and heads and killed them all unbelievably (also partially due to desication while I was away for a weekend). Anyways, for those who have bred them in the past, how and what did you get them started on? For those that may have witnessed any feeding in the wild, please share! I am in southern NY (Westchester County) and would be very interested to hear any info on getting these little CHEWERS started come next season. Thanks!
-Adam

Vertebrate specialists. There are currently no confirmed or substantially supported reports of any subspecies of Lampropeltis triangulum consuming invertebrates. Crickets are well known as aggressive when they're hungry and thirsty. Milks don't eat crickets.

What types of lizards and frogs did you try? Milks in NY are predominantly rodent feeders, with various species of Vole and Peromyscus making up the bulk of their diet.

-Cole

Thank you for the info! I tried baby brown anoles and baby american toads and baby green tree frogs. The crickets were a last ditch effort aside from force feeding. I really thought they were going to eat pinkies right off the bat because my adults were found either eating or later regurged good sized brown field mice. Now I know for next year!

Cole provided great info as always. I can add what I have seen over the last couple of years experimenting with hatchling/yearling easterns.

They seem to love baby snakes, and from what I've tried baby redbellys don't stand a chance. They have also taken f/t newborn pinkies for me. Parts of Westchester county do have fence lizards and five lined skinks, and I'm sure easterns from your area would eat them.
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Joe

Great photos! I thought to try baby snakes but could not seem to turn any up that were small enough. Now I've got some alterna that I know for a fact will eat snakes, but cant seem to get them on anything else...not even scented pinks with snake! Thank you for the info.

Where I live there are no lizards and in some cases pinkies are simply too big. I think the wild milks here mainly eat baby snakes until they get bigger. As Cole stated, milk snake don't eat crickets.

Tim

Third Eye

There are alot of other types of baby mammals that they eat too. Mus muscas is not native and they dont eat them in the wild. If you bred white footed, deer or house mice you would have no problem. But it is far easier collecting a few gravid brown/redbelly snakes or stocking up on smaller garters(such as the Mt.Terrestrials I have). Many times eastern garters arent accepted either(in my experience

I never said MICE - read my post.
Baby rats are referred to as "pinkies," as are baby shrews, voles, mice, ect.

Tim

Sorry, I interpretted your post as domestic mice. My point still was that wild mice, moles, voles and shrew pinks are much smaller than what we are all familiar with and what are most commonly eaten by Easterns. Picture a lucky milk happening on a litter of these guys and mowing! Of course they gobble up green, brown and red bellies too but they arent likely to be taken in aggregation.

Tim,That's a killer eastern milk! Jeff

Yeah, that IS a really nice looking corn,..uh,..@#*...I mean Eastern!..

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

You know them corns get HUGE eating ringnecks! LMAO!!

I believe that's the Okeetee-Miami phase of Eastern milk, Doug.
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1.2 Peruvian rainbow boas (Amaru, Asiru, Kulipsa)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (Arco, Olho)
1.3.1 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Chakar, Hari, Saksak)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (Coatl)
0.0.1 Mexican black kingsnake (Mora)
2.4.4 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, Uce, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

as Joe said, baby brown/redbelly snakes, garter snakes, maybe a ringneck or two.. as well as small skinks. I'd be surprised if one could get ahold of a fence lizard though.
you could also force feed mouse tails if nothing else works..
crickets are not desirable to any snake except maybe the green snake, lol. and ground snakes. definitely not milks though.
better luck next time.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles
www.kingpinreptiles.com