Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here is my "Honduran" Milksnake. The photos are a bit blurry because he doesn't want to sit still. He's still getting used to being handled. He's actually calmed down a bit even since Tuesday it seems, but sometimes he's a bit nippy (as you can see).

I don't have a name yet. We're thinking Sargeant Fuego.

He is apprently from a clutch last fall, and I was told that because he was only fed once a week for the first 6 months, that he may not reach his full potential in length. Something about setting the metabolism. I don't really care, he's super cute and the banding looks awesome to me. I plan to feed him every 4-5 days while he's still young.

Nice. Hondurans usually don't like being handled until they're about a year old or so. Babies are squirmy and sometimes bite.

That thing about it not reaching its full growth potential is nonsense. As long as you feed it and take care of it, it will reach a normal adult size.

They're a great pet snake - I have one that will turn 24 years old this summer.

Tim

Third Eye Herp

Very nice... glad see you are happy with your choice.

And I agree with Tim... while your new pet is a bit on the smallish size for roughly six months the whole idea of having "set the metabolism" is BS... feed it every 4 to 5 days as you plan... if at feeding time he devours your offering quickly offer a second item or go to every 3 to 4 days... no reason at all your new little beastie can't realize it's full growth potential... if you want it to!

Going to send you a PM/email... probably tomorrow... until then, again congrats on your new pet.

Gerry

If he got a pinky weekly for six months that's 26 pinkies. IMHO, he'd be bigger than that if that were the case. I'd bet he was fed weekly for a while, then brumated for the winter, which could cut that total in half, or even fewer. But as noted, its growth potential remains.

Pretty snake, btw. Can you measure him? Buy/borrow a postal scale and give us the gram weight. Plenty of people on here can reflect on current weight vs typical hatchling weights. It's been about five years since i was breeding hundreds of them, but i seem to remember babies weighing around 16-26 grams at hatching, generally speaking. Is that close, Tim?

Okay so I have left out some details. First I bought it at a local pet store, the manager of which knows the local breeder. It is he who told me everything. He said the snake probably was born in a second clutch back in September. I know from experience that the pet store feeds its collection once a week on Mondays, and I'm sure he didn't do anything with it over the winter, assuming it was in his care at that time. I do think he would skip a feeding during a shed or something though.

As a business, he has some incentive to keep the animals small, more animals per square foot. All of the animals in there look healthy, he's not starving the animals. The cost of a pinkie or fuzzy isn't high enough to limit offering those, but he's not going to feed it every 3-5 days either.

The snake is about 14" maybe a bit more. I do not know his weight.
Either way, I think he looks awesome.

What will get him used to being handled best, many short handlings, or few long handlings? I don't want to freak him out too much.

Thanks all of you for the info.

Pretty snake and welcome to Hondurans. I think they are a top choice as a pet snake - they feed great, get to a nice size and calm down nicely with age.

I agree with feeding every 4-5 days. He'll reach his proper size in time.

And, it's a good idea to get an inexpensive digital scale to track growth. Terry is correct that hatchlings tend to be 16-26 grams. I have some hold-back Honduran hatchlings from last fall that are pushing 80 grams.

One tip: Pay attention to the quality of your food. Many times people opt to buy in bulk for lowest prices but don't often take into consideration the absolute best quality - they just look at price. But ask around to other snake keepers about the best quality feeder rodents. Try a few different vendors and make your own judgement. Cleanliness counts, as does accurate sizing and vacuum sealed bags. I've grown some monster Hondos over the years and I think the one thing I've done that played the biggest role in that was feeding quality rodents to my snakes.

Enjoy your new pet!

Rob Haneisen

I don't buy in bulk. I have shopped around at the stores in the area for overall quality of animals and staff. Yeah, staff quality matters. I'm not sure where he gets his mice. It might be the gourmet rodent because they're based about 40min from here. Actually by BP came from them, I guess they dabble in BPs, and I picked her up at the Daytona show. Living in FL is nice.

Hi Rob. Nice snakes. What do you estimate to be the length of that anery?

Hi Terry!

That anery is a few inches over 6 feet. Weight is right around 1,400 grams.

The ghost pictured in this message is one of his offspring.

Rob

Georgeous ghost. Very clean. His dad was quite nice too.

--Dennis

>>Hi Terry!
>>
>>That anery is a few inches over 6 feet. Weight is right around 1,400 grams.
>>
>>The ghost pictured in this message is one of his offspring.
>>
>>Rob
>>

Excellent!