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Caught another Eastern Milk!

cito Oct 02, 2003 05:47 PM

I went out around where I usually catch snakes, and where i caught my other two milk snakes, and lifted a rock on top of another rock and poof another milk. This one seemed to be about a year old, around 15 inches long. And in great condition, i was just wondering though, it has a really stubby tail at the end, and neither of my two other milks had that, is it normal?

Replies (8)

jones Oct 03, 2003 01:06 AM

Where (generally) are you catching them. At the place I find easterns, (east central, IL) all of them have the stubby tail. There are two theories on this. One, it's an old injury that has healed. Two, they are having problems shedding properly and are not shedding the tip of the tail. This constricts and eventually kills the tissue which falls off. In the ones I find, they all have the stubby tail but they have different degrees of stubbiness. I've actually mentally been using this to determine their approximate age. However, you said yours was a juvenile. That screws up my theory. How shortened is the tail?
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cito Oct 03, 2003 05:53 AM

I dont really know how to measure the "shortness". It was probably an inch or so shorter than normal, and the stub goes up to a slight point at the tip, kinda like the letter D.

cito Oct 03, 2003 05:55 AM

You said they could have having shedd problems..is ther anything i should do about it? Will it eventually become "unstubby" after about a year of good shedds?

jones Oct 04, 2003 12:32 AM

Just check the tail after every shed and make sure it shed off correctly. I usually have to pull it off on mine. No it won't become unstubby but it will start to look a lot better. Where are you finding these?
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cito Oct 04, 2003 07:46 AM

We live in this really small town in Connecticut with no buildings other than houses. Thats how small it is. At my friends house, there is a forest about 10 miles long and in the middle of the forest there is about a 2 mile stretch of nothing but old broken down stone walls and thats where we found our three milks. Yesterday we went there at 6:00 when it was 50 degrees and dark and we got 8 new snakes. Im probably going back today to find more.

jones Oct 04, 2003 11:32 PM

Why do you need so many milk snakes? Or do you mean you just found them and let them go? Taking that many snakes out of that small of a habitat can really screw up the population.
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cito Oct 05, 2003 12:01 AM

So many? We only caught three this year and one was let go. Is two really alot?

jones Oct 06, 2003 03:53 AM

Sorry, I guess I misunderstood. I thought you meant you collected eight more easterns.
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