What is so difficult about keeping eastern milks? I have caught several of them this year and every one of them has been a great eater on ft rat pinks and ft fuzzy mice. Today i got a tiny hatchling to eat a pinky in a deli cup!
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Easterns
idothatforme
Jul 01, 2012 09:39 PM
Replies (3)
tspuckler
Jul 02, 2012 06:30 PM
The fact that there's been t-positive and t-negative Easterns for quite some some, yet they've never hit the marketplace as captive bred babies is a testament to how tricky they are. Adults, especially wildcaught examples, are often sporadic feeders.
Like virtually every other North American Milk Snake, babies don't always start off readily on pinkys - maybe about half of them do.
There's probably not as much interest in Easterns because they are widespread and relatively common - the same reason why there's not much interest in Eastern Black Kingsnakes.
If a person works with other NA Milks, than Easterns aren't much different (maybe because they're a NA Milk). If you work with Hondurans, Pueblans, Nelson's and other Central American Milks, than Easterns are much more work.
I do admire the breeders willing to put in much more work to keep and breed Milks from the USA!
Tim
Third Eye Herp
idothatforme
Jul 02, 2012 08:08 PM
I bet after several generations of captive breeding easterns can be great feeders. I personally think easterns are one of the more interesting looking milks, they have more variety to their patterns. They don't just have banding all up and down their bodies
DMong
Jul 02, 2012 09:52 PM
Well, there are quite a few pattern anomalies out there with other milksnakes too though.
This is just some of the examples in the Hondurans, let alone several others in the hobby.
Granted, Easterns are cool snakes too. Like Tim mentioned, but don't think for one second that all Easterns will feed like yours have..LOL! Many experienced N. American breeders I know will certainly attest to this. Several other subspecies can commonly be a pain now and then too. It depends on so many unknown factors too along with the right husbandry.
Heck, even some common kingsnakes can be almost impossible for a good while as hatchlings until something finally trips the feeding response "switch" in their heads..LOL!
Anyway, here are a few interesting pattern color mutations in just the Hondurans to check out.
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