Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm posting this for everyone who expressed interest last week... this is my growth chart, and below is a link to my photo gallery to which I have added a couple of photos that show the black milks in various stages of the color change that they go through. Mine are from the San Antonio Zoo and Mark Bell lines, produced by Steve Emerick of Napa Valley Snakes in 2002. As you can see, they're about 4 feet long now, and completely black.

Picture Gallery

Most excellent, thanks very much for the post! I will have to dedicate myself to keeping growth records myself to see how they compare. The pics are beautiful as well!

Best Regards....John.

Thanks for sharing the info and great pics (very beautiful animals). The intermediate pictures are very interesting. I've heard people (wanting a black snake) complain about having a "muddy" snake for a while...but I think watching the color change would be fascinating.

-Josh
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One female Eastern Indigo. That's right, just one snake. But she's my dream-snake, so back off man.

Thanks for the compliments, it really means something coming from someone who will settle for nothing less than an eastern indigo. They're actually pretty much my dream snake too, although I'm not sure I'd want to clean up after one. Unfortunately, due to Maine's ridiculous laws regarding what species residents can and can't keep, it isn't a (legal) option for me anyway. But I digress.... gaigeae do go through a sort of "ugly duckling" phase, but it really only lasts a few months. I think they actually look a lot like various honduran morphs... the ones that lose the white first look like bicolor hondos for a while, and the ones that lose the red bands first have a sort of anery look. In my humble opinion, bicolor hondos (and black milks in the black/red stage) look pretty cool, and the muddiest black milk isn't any uglier than an anery hondo. As far as comparing them to other black colubrids... what else is out there besides couperi... black rats, black pines, mex. black kings, black racers? I think that in terms of size, care requirements, temperament, and glossy blackness, an adult black milk would compare favorably to any of those species. Then again, being a Lampropeltis enthusiast, I'm obviously biased.

Nate

It's like a few different snakes in one

And while I ended up with the Indigo, I almost got a black milk. "Settle" wasnt' the right word, because, after weighing my options and situation, I really thought that the Black Milk was the right snake for me (I like them better then the other non-indigo black snake options). Between their lower maintenence, appitites, tameness, look (I just like the robustness and their overall shape and size) I thought that was the way to go. The thing that really changed my mind was that there just happened to be a great indigo breeder (Robert Carmichael) living only a half hour away from me...and he made all the potential headaches of aquiring the indigo pretty easy.

But I still would like to see a black milk up close. I have a friend who is seriously thinking of getting his first snake and I think I might push him in this direction...for my own selfish purposes of course (well...I think it would be a good snake for him too).
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One female Eastern Indigo. That's right, just one snake. But she's my dream-snake, so back off man.