Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Of milk snakes, that is. I was thinking about getting a pair of milk's but not sure what ssp to get. I would rather keep to one of the smaller ones if possible. Not sure if I will breed them or just enjoy them as pets but would like some nice lineage in case I would decide to breed them down the line. I have always kept exotic pets in the past (snakes included) and have breed Veiled and Panther chameleons, sugar gliders and chinchillas. (no longer have any of them) I have always liked Milk snakes And am finally going to break down and get a couple. If I do decide to breed them, I would like the possibility of a variety of babies such as albino and snow. Any suggestions on what to look for or any reputable breeders that would have nice lineage?
Thanks,
Chuck

The only snows are Hondurans. They are one of the larger milks. To create morphs like hypo, albino, anerythristic, etc., you need to breed two snakes together that are carrying the same gene (i.e. hypo, albino, anerythristic).

Nelson's are excellent pets, are relatively small, and they come in albino, normal and a somewhat new T-plus albino.

Tim

Third Eye

Yeah,Tim nailed it and also the Mexican milks stay pretty small and make great pets as well.They also come in Albino form for now plus a couple pattern morphs and down the road there will be some hypos available etc....

L8r Shannon

p.s. this is a picture of a t-plus albino nelsoni.

Thank you both for your responses. What exactly is a T-plus Nelsoni? Maybe it's because I'm color blind, but I don't see much difference from a regular albino and cant find much about them online. I really do like the ghost, snow and pearl Hondos. Decisions, decisions...

Let me back up a little. I guess the pictures I was seeing online were albino and only het for T-Plus. I guess that's why I couldn't tell the difference. I would like to still know what the characteristics of a T-Plus are though. thanks

T-plus looks like a hypo. Comparing a T-plus Nelson's to a normal would be visually similar to comparing a hypo Honduran to a normal one.

Tim

And a albino nelsoni can't be het for t plus.There is no such thing! They are either t plus or they aren't.Its not a simple recessive gene like hypo,amel or anery etc.....

The t-plus is like a hypo as Tim said.In fact,There is little evedince to show that a t-plus isn't a hypo actually.The term "hypo" is thrown around so much and many times mis-used that I like the t-plus name when it is fitting.

Anyway, here is a pic of a t-plus albino along side a sibling albino.

also along the nelsoni and or siniloan lines there are pattern mutations.There are the splotched siniloans ( and they are actually intergrades of siniloans and nelsoni)and there are vanishing pattern or patternless and that gene is co-dom so you can see it in first generation.
I also have a line of pure nelsoni that is co-dom as well and het albino so I produce some wacky looking albinos from them.
Then there is the hypo-e or sometimes called "pumpkin" siniloans.And we have already did the work and produced albino hypo-e's.
Next step is to breed the t-plus into the albino pumpkins and albino splotched and the results will be litters that will have some t plus offspring in them that are 100% het for splotched and for hypo-e.
I can't wait to see what a t-plus splotched looks like.I altready have produced some t plus babies that are vanishing patern or patternless.

here is a pic of one of my albino splotched.

and here is the first patternless t plus produced.

and here is a t plus I produced from my aberrant nelsoni line.

The sky is the limit with nelsoni so that may be something you want to work with.As soon as somebody pops out a anery ( Im sure it will happen in the next few years with all the line breeding)then we will be able to produce snows and ghosts etc.....

L8r Shannon

Great pictorial Shannon! Here is what confuses me, the names given to each pattern changing gene. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Amel gene -simple recessive
HypoE - simple recessive
Splotched- simple recessive
Striped - a super splotched form, simple recessive.
Bulls eye - Co-Dominate
Patternless - Co - Dominate
Tplus - Co - Dominate when breed with another amel

Now I have included both sinalaoe and nelsoni forms in the list. As some originated from either of the two. I think that is all the morphs between the two so far in the hobby?
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Jimmy Tintle

Yeah, thats about it except I do have a true hypo nelsoni female that I got from over the pond.Not sure yet if its co-dom or simple but will probably find out soon.Problem with it is its super hard to even tell its hypo but it is for sure.I will see what I have on file for a pic.

here is 2 hypos along with a normal and you can see the difference.

L8r