Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone, I am very happy to see some posts on here of people who have Eastern Milks. I had one that was WC and did great, but I gave him to a friend who wanted him and have been kicking myself ever since. Then 2 months ago a different friend was given an adult Eastern Milk that had been dropped off at a local vet clinic with some pretty bad injuries. I desperatly wanted her, despite the injuries she was active and friendly and I just had a gut feeling she'd pull through. My friend opted to keep her, I was unsuccessful in my plea, but then a couple days later she sent me an email asking if I still wanted an Eastern. Turns out the snake was gravid and laid eggs! They recently hatched and she now has 7 babies. I'm tickled pink about the idea of getting a hatchling. It's illegal to buy/sell/breed them here in NY to the best of my knowledge, so getting a baby that was hatched in captivity is not an easy thing to do. Another friend said we need to let all of the babies go because baby Easterns are too small to eat mice and the only way to keep them alive is feeding them baby garters. Is this true? I breed my own mice so I have access to day old pinks. Can I try to feed them the day olds? Or maybe just the heads? It seems people here have successfully bred Easterns, so that boosts my confidence that I will be able to raise a hatchling. What are your thoughts? Sorry I don't have a pic of the babies. I wish I did. I sure would love to hear some people say they have successfully gotten hatchling Easterns to eat, and what they fed them!

This is the WC one I gave away (kick kick kick) I started him on beheaded pinks and then full pinks and then fuzzies, he was a good eater. He was young but not a "hatchling"

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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Anery Corn Snakes (Suezo)
1.0 Banded Water Snake (Ripley)
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
0.2 Mississippi Mud Turtles (working on names)
1.0 Green Iguana (Norbert)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.5 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)

In the wild, baby eastern milks that are not big enough to eat pinky mice will eat snakes. That is their main prey item until they get bigger. They'll also eat lizards, frogs, salamanders, I guess you could feed it pinky parts, or pinky heads. Good luck.
Michael
Michael's Place

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www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Michael_Fedzen@hotmail.com

"In the wild" you say?? They dont try and feed on domestic mice,they feed on baby moles,voles and shrews as well as smaller mice species in addition to baby snakes and likely other things that we dont even know about.Milks just dont seem to be gluttons at any age or size or even sub-species.I think getting them to feed voluntarily has more to do with temp and humidity and aggressiveness than anything else.Try everything(scenting,braining,bagging,etc)but dont overlook the NEED for them to be aggressive.Getting them pissed off before offering a food item is a good thing.But there is a fine line between being pissed off and being scared.Jeff

I had a baby eastern milk before. Whenever I would feed a pre-killed mouse to my Cornsnake, I would slice off a hind leg from the mouse. My Milksnake had no problem eating these until he was big enough to eat pinkies.