Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have never owned any type of milk before, I have had corns, Cal kings, pits, boas and short tails but never any milks. I have always been impressed by the beauty of hondos and andeans but have become intrigued by the discussions here on blacks. Which of these ssp gets greater body size, girth and weight? How would an adult compare in size to a pine snake or eastern king? Is one any more handlable than the other? I know there are a lot of morphs to choose in the hondos, are there any morphs in the blacks or andean? I know next to nothing on milks so any info is good. Thanks

Snaker,
I currently have these three ssp. of milksnakes. Generally, I would say that the Black Milk snake is the largest of these three. Certain Andeans and Hondurans can exceed 6ft. which is the length of the Black Milksnake. But if you are looking to get a milksnake based size the largest milksnake that I have is Stuart's milksnake. Blacks and Andeans both do well being housed at room temperature, whereas Hondurans would have to be kept warmer. Blacks are born a tricolor and between 1.5 and 2 years they turn solid black. The only snakes that I keep are milksnakes and anacondas, so it is hard for me to give a reference size. I have only seen one adult eastern king and going by that I would say that all three get bigger than eastern kings. A good person to ask about reference size is Shannon Brown I know he currently keeps milks, kings, and pits.I currently have a honduran that is larger than all my other milks except my Stuart's. I would say that blacks are more docile, but have never been bitten by an andean and only a couple times buy hondurans. I would say that if you are looking to get a large milksnake that is very docile I would recommend getting Guatemalan milksnakes, they are what I would consider the most docile milksnake. They turn from a tricolor to ruby red and black get about 4ft and about as round as a half dollar. The andean milksnake as morph called the "Inca" phase. There are no natural morphs that I know of for blacks but a group of guys in Va. called Dominion reptiles is crossing a Black milk to a Tangerine albino trying to get a snake that would turn progressively white. I hope that this helps.

>>I have never owned any type of milk before, I have had corns, Cal kings, pits, boas and short tails but never any milks. I have always been impressed by the beauty of hondos and andeans but have become intrigued by the discussions here on blacks. Which of these ssp gets greater body size, girth and weight? How would an adult compare in size to a pine snake or eastern king? Is one any more handlable than the other? I know there are a lot of morphs to choose in the hondos, are there any morphs in the blacks or andean? I know next to nothing on milks so any info is good. Thanks

There are no natural morphs that I know of for blacks but a group of guys in Va. called Dominion reptiles is crossing a Black milk to a Tangerine albino trying to get a snake that would turn progressively white.

A black milk turns black because it produces extra melanin which obscures the tricolor pattern. If you had an albino black milk, it would simply retain the tricolor pattern (at least an albino tricolor pattern) throughout its life, as it wouldn't produce the extra melanin needed to obscure it.
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Chris Harrison

...he was beginning to realize he was the creature of a god that appreciated the discomfort of his worshippers - W. Somerset Maugham