Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all~

Just thought I'd check in with all you milksnake lovers! I've had my black milks since last feb. and they are doing great. I have an unrelated male and female pair whose parents were from the San Antonio line. I've successfully converted them from newspaper to aspen bedding, and I think they like it a lot. As of now they are feeding on weanling mice and rat fuzzies. I can't wait for them to get big! I DEFINITELY plan on breeding them, but not until 2006-2007. I'll just have to be patient. In the meantime, I've got my columbian boa! BTW, a word of caution about feeding live. The other week I ran out of frozen and bought two live weanlings. I stunned both of them and tossed them to each one of the black milks. While my male was constricting it, the "stunned" mouse came back to life and started gnawing on the snake. I quickly intervened, but the mouse left him with nice little scar. I'm not too worried. He's tough, plus, it builds character! Just be careful when feeding live, or even stunned prey. Also, what size prey do all you black milk owners feed your adults? I've started my youngsters on rat fuzzies so that when they get larger, they won't have problem switching to small rats. I've read that adult black milks, (males especially) have no problem taking medium sized rats. I've noticed with mine that they seem to have very strectchy jaws in comparison to most other lampropeltis. Any ideas? Thanks to all of you who put up with my rambling, and Happy Thanksgiving!

-Mack

In reference to your feeding question. I feed mine smaller F/T pry. The adults get two large mice or two small rats about every week. I feed smaller pry items because it seems to digest quicker. It is in and through the snake faster. Larger pry items, which adult Blacks have no problem with seems to hang in their gut longer.

My logic behind this is that an F/T mouse or rat once thawed starts to decompose internally very quickly. The larger the pry item the longer it takes the digestive acids to break down as it travels through. Smaller pry items are broken down faster less time for the pry item to putrefy within the snake.

Mack, I am no expert on snake nutrition but I have studied tissue decomposition and I do have healthy Black Milks.

Hope this has helped you.

I have an unrelated pair of 00 Black milks that will be breeding for the first time this season. Both are pushing 6ft. I feed them each 1 medium to large f/t rat per week. They eat those with no problem. I have feed jumbo mice as well as f/t chicks. They seem to all pretty much eat anything, they have such as strong feeding response, I have even heard of some black milks taking fish as well.

Hope this helps
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1.1 02 Ghost Bulls
1.1 01 Texas Glossy snakes
1.3 01 Western Hognose
1.1 00 Striped Het Albino Pacific Gophers
1.2 03 Tri-color hognose
1.1 01 Black Milks

Hello,
I have a pair of '02 black milks that are about 3' long... when do you think I could start offering small chicks? I've never actually seen them so I don't have a good idea of how big they ar

I have an unrelated pair of 00 Black milks that will be breeding for the first time this season. Both are pushing 6ft. I feed them each 1 medium to large f/t rat per week. They eat those with no problem. I have feed jumbo mice as well as f/t chicks. They seem to all pretty much eat anything, they have such as strong feeding response, I have even heard of some black milks taking fish as well.

Hope this helps
-----
1.1 01 Texas Glossy snakes
1.3 01 Western Hognose
1.1 00 Striped Het Albino Pacific Gophers
1.2 03 Tri-color hognose
1.1 00 Black Milks
0.1 01 Black Milk