Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am really amazed at how nice to Red, White/Yellow, & Black Tri-Color Honduran Milksnakes look. I am thinking of getting one - but I had some questions, first...

1.) How Large Do They Get? I have read that they get 4 Feet, but I have also been told that they can reach 6 Feet. What is the norm? What is their average adult size?

2.) How Do They Behave? Are They Nice? How Are They As Babies & As Adolescents & As Adults?

3.) Can Someone Please Post A Photo of An Adult, Full-Sized Tri-Color Honduran Milksnake?

Thank you so much,
Dan from Long Island

"Piano Man Fan.com" - Billy Joel Fan-Site

Hey Dan,

your first 2 questions apply to all honduran milksnakes...and that, they can grow on the average of 4 feet to 6 feet in length, they are very edgy as hatchlings as all types of snake hatchlings react when handled ( by instinct, they think you are gonna eat them, hence they wanna get away from you )... but over time as they grow with constant handling, they become docile and easily handled without fuss. If you handle them from the time they are hatchings on a regular basis, they would be at ease with you already around 3 - 4 months old.

The tricolor honduran can be a "regular" type or the "hypo" type. The one pictured below is my tricolor hypo female. I don't have the regular or wild type of tricolor but am sure someone can post one for you...

Good luck.

Ray

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RAY

Thanks for the reply, Ray.

What is "Hypo" & what is "Het"...?

Have any pics of a 5' or 6' Tri-Color next to you, so I can see how big they get in relation to a human?

Thanks for the great reply so quickly!

Dan

Thanks for the reply, Ray.

What is "Hypo" & what is "Het"...?

Have any pics of a 5' or 6' Tri-Color next to you, so I can see how big they get in relation to a human?

Thanks for the great reply so quickly!

Dan,

"hypo", which is really Hypomelanistic, is a recessive trait/gene that reduces the amount of black pigment on their bands and on the tipping of their scales. These snakes have a really bright appearance with a purplish shade on the black areas... as compared to the "normal" looking or "wild type" looking snake.

The hypos are more expensive than the normal looking simply because they are prettier, more sought out, and harder to produce than normal looking ones. The term "het" (or heterozygous) simply means that the snake carries the recessive gene of let's say hypomelanistic but does not visually show that recessive gene. In other words, you might see a tricolor honduran het for hypo... which simply means that your normal looking tricolor carries the hypo gene. Also, be careful when people say het for something... you need to find out if it is "definite het" or "possible het"... "Definte het" would mean that it is 100% that the animal carries that gene... and example would be a normal tricolor bred to a hypo tricolor will produce babies that are 100% normal looking and yet 100% definite het for hypo because one of their parents is 100% hypo. Now, for the term "possible het"...let's say you breed a tricolor hypo that is 100% wild type with no recessive gene at all and then you breed that to let's say a tricolor looking but is a definite het for hypo (like the babies from the 1st example), then the babies for this second example will produce visually all tricolor wild type ones but 50% of that clutch will carry the hypo gene and 50% do not carry it at all.... in other words, since you cannot tell with snakes carry the recessive gene, it is labelled as "50% possible het for hypo".

Lastly, sorry i don't have a pic of a tricolor with me holding it. I normally take pics of snakes without humans included...hehehe...

Thanks and hope this clarifies some of your questions...

Later...

Ray
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RAY

Thanks again, Ray.

I am a bit confused. I think you said that Hypo means that the parts that should be black have a little purplish hue to them. I understand that.

However, I am confused about the "Het"... I kind of understand about the "Possible" and "Definite" descriptions, but not sure if I totally get it.

Supposed I wanted an Orange/Reddish, Black, & White Banded Tri-Color - what would be my best bet?

Thanks again,
Dan

.

Can you please elaborate and/or answer my questions?

Thanks,
Dan

As I stated already once or twice ALL Honduran Milksnakes grow to an enormous size in Milksnake standards. I think the record length was posted on here once before last year of one over 7 feet. A 4' Honduran is NOT fully grown.
As for your definition problems:
Het is short for Heterozygous which means carrying a trait.
A specimens showing the trait is Homozygous.
There are:
Hypomelanistics
Hypoerytheristics (anery)
Tangerines
Tricoloreds
Amelanistic (albino)
Ghosts (both Anery and Amel)
Snows (both Amel and Anery)
Hybinos (Hypo and Amel)
All the above animals derived from original wild caught tri colored Hondurans. When an amel is bred to a normal the offspring are definite heterozygous for amel.
When Two possible hets are bred together the normal looking offspring are only possible hets. You get possible hets many other ways but this is the simplest.
Check out Terry Dunham's website. It is albino tricolors. There
is a link right above all the posts in the Sponsors portion of the page. He has a terrific genetics page you should read. Also he has some pretty pictures to look at. LOL
John Lassiter

Dan,

Do you still need more clarifications ... or are all your questions answered?

If not, you can email me directly and I can answer them later tonight.

Thanks,

Ray
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RAY

I am confused about the genetics, but it's something that I must read over and over to try to get the hang of what and how it all works.

Where is Terry's web-site located?

Thanks to everyone!
Dan

Look above all the posts under SPONSORS. Click on Albino Tricolors. Goto his genetics page. It is a great tool and has helped me out many times. I think I am getting the hang of it now.
John Lassiter

The one on this page is gorgeous - what kind is it???

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/index.php?photo=193917&user=82057

Dan

..

Bummer...

Anyone know where I can see a pic of a 5'-6' Tri-Color Honduran Milksnake?

Much appreciated!

Dan

Here is a 5' Hypo Tricolor.

Image

Beautiful!

How old is that Milksnake? Have a pic of it next to someone? It's hard to judge it the way it is in that pic.

Will the light coloring get lighter or still have blackish type coloring in it, forever?

Thank you,
Dan

>>Beautiful!
>>
>>How old is that Milksnake? Have a pic of it next to someone? It's hard to judge it the way it is in that pic.
>>
>>Will the light coloring get lighter or still have blackish type coloring in it, forever?
>>
>>
>>Thank you,
>>Dan

Dude, what's so hard to understand? It would look EXACTLY like the snake in the picture, only it would be 1 foot longer???????????????????????? These snakes don't magically get to 5.5 feet long and then turn purple and have neon flashing stripes. It looks like a honduran milksnake when it's just out of the egg, and continues to look EXACTLY the same untill the day it dies, only it gets bigger.

These snakes don't magically go from a normal tri colored snake at birth and end up turning into an albino when it gets a certain age. They are what they are for life, other than the size thing. Cut a peice of rope 6 feet long and then hold it out next to you. That's what a 6 foot milksnake will look like when it gets 6 feet long.

It all boils down to how much money you have to spend. Do you want a normal Honduran milk which could be had for $100, or do you want a Snow (google search for it, please) which can run you up to $2500 or more. They will all (Hondurans) have the potential to get 6 feet in length when fully grown.

Have you considered the housing requirements for such a large colubrid? You don't just throw it into a 10 gallon tank and expect it to do fine. Even in a 55 gallon tank, which is only 48 inches long, a 6 foot snake (72 inches long) will have limited room to move around.

So look at pictures of the morph of snake you are wanting information about, and then imagine the snake fully grown, looking EXACTLY like it did when smaller. Granted the normal hondurans will get a substantial amount of black tipping on their scales that will make them look darker, but they will still be the same colors they were all their life.

The underlying question I have here is what is the main purpose of specifically getting a snake that gets 6 feet long or more? Something to scare the kiddies with (please tell me no to this)?? Something to be "cool" to show off with? It's a living breathing creature that will depend 100% on you and your efforts to survive and be healthy.
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"Colubrid-aphilia", adj; An inordinate love of Colubrids.

.............................

Dude, I wanted to see what a 4 Footer next to an adult human looks like. Maybe 4 Feet is sufficient...?

I just want a large substantial snake.

Thanks,
Dan

>>Dude, I wanted to see what a 4 Footer next to an adult human looks like. Maybe 4 Feet is sufficient...?
>>
>>I just want a large substantial snake.
>>
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Dan

So what happened to your previous post where a photo of a 6 foot plus monster Honduran being held by an adult humanoid was posted?

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=717011,717551

A 4 foot snake will look 2 feet smaller than a 6 foot snake.

Colubrids (of which the Honduran is a member of the family) are not heavy bodied snakes like boas and pythons. They are much slimmer in comparison.

A 4 foot honduran would be like a 4 foot section of garden hose.

Perhaps you would do better with a pine or mole snake, they get over 6 feet long. Indigo snakes get really large, but are endangered and can tend to have a nasty disposition, not to mention expensive.

If your after length plus girth, you WILL have to go with a boid (python or boa, anaconda etc)

Hondurans are beautiful snakes and come in so many different varieties, this is the main reason they are so popular. Not to mention that they are among the larger of the milk snakes.

Large snakes need lots of room, lots of food. Large snakes make LARGE messes, requiring more frequent cleaning and maintenance of their enclosures. Large snakes can be a handfull to handle. Every snake is different in it's own personality, some are laid back, some are absolute scaled devils (with teeth).

Please, please, please do a lot of research into whatever you decide to get so that you can properely meet the requirements of the species that you end up getting.

If this is your first experience with snakes, or herps in general, start out slowly. Get yourself a corn snake, they are excellent beginner snakes than can grow to over 4 feet, some over 5. Most if not all corns are easy to maintain, keep, and handle. Corns are also colubrids, same general family as the Hondurans, pretty much the same requirements to keep as Hondurans, just not as large in the end. Once you are comfortable with something smaller (corns or pueblans, siniloans etc.) then by all means step up to larger snakes.

Don't just get a large snake for the sake of being "cool" or trendy.

Personally if you ask myself and many others here on the boards, Hondurans are the Pinnacle of colubrids, kind of like a drug. Once you get your first "taste" of them, you just gotta have more.
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"Colubrid-aphilia", adj; An inordinate love of Colubrids.

If your absolutely not going to listen to reason and have to have a large Honduran, you should surf the classified section.

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=59&de=262227

Neil has a photo in the add of a humanoid holding a 5 foot Honduran, although it is coiled up around his arms.

The best photo I've seen to date of a large honduran was posted in your other thread. Most pics are going to be of snakes coiled up in an enclosure or in someone's hands.
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"Colubrid-aphilia", adj; An inordinate love of Colubrids.

I only want one snake, so I want it to be right.

I now have to decide if I like the Tangerine ones better than the regular Tri-Colors...

If you know of any large Tri-Color with human pics, please post it.

Dan

Dan,

Here is a 76" tri-c honduran last measured in 2003, she put on a few inches since then.

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Marc Bouchard
Selectively Bred Serpents
www.selectively-bred-serpents.ca

Cool!

More Pics! More Pics!

What's the name?

Males or Females get larger?

Females generaly get bigger!

Did I mention, Tri-c Hypos rule!

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Marc Bouchard
Selectively Bred Serpents
www.selectively-bred-serpents.ca

Awesome, Marc...

Have more pics? Have pics of your snake stretched out?

Is Hypo better than Het? How old is yours?

From baby to 4 Feet, how many years does that take?

Thanks again,
Dan

>>Awesome, Marc...
>>
>>Have more pics? Have pics of your snake stretched out?
>>
>>Is Hypo better than Het? How old is yours?
>>
>>From baby to 4 Feet, how many years does that take?
>>
>>
>>Thanks again,
>>Dan

Hypo is a Homozygous animal (Homozygous meaning the dominant trait, or in other words the trait that the animal is showing). Heterozygous (therefore "Het" ) is a recessive trait, in other words the animal looks normal but is carrying the "hidden" gene for whatever morph it is "Het" for.

Hypo-melanistic (of course Melanin refers to the makeup of the BLACK coloration) snakes have a reduced black color. Some are greyish, some brownish, some extreme hypos show almost purple.

The oposite would be an animal that was HYPER-melanistic, or had tons of black pigment (melanin) that would almost completely obscure (cover, block out) the other colors on the snake.

Homozygous animals show the trait that they carry as it is a dominant gene. In otherwords Hypo, albino (Amelinistic), snow, ghost, anery etc animals are Homozygous for the trait that they carry, making them look the way they do.l

Heterozygous animals are normal looking, yet carry the gene (recessive in this case) for the morph hidden inside them. If you breed a heterozygous animal to a homozygous animal, you will get both homozygous (the morph is dominant so they look like the particular morph) and heterozygous animals from a breeding.

Also you can breed a het to a het and get normals (not het), het and homozyogous babies. It's a cheap way to get into the more expensive snakes as "hets" are much cheaper.

This is a shot of a tri-color hypo (mine) with her Heterozygous (ie. "het" ) sister:

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"Colubrid-aphilia", adj; An inordinate love of Colubrids.

I appreciate your explanation, but I am afraid I am grossly confused.

The 2 snakes in the pic look pretty identical to me. I like the one on the right, better. How are they different?

MUCH APPRECIATED!!!
Dan

I've been biting my tongue (figuratively) on this one, but this thread has gotten so long (wide) that I have to use a horizontal scroll bar to view it. Call it a pet peeve.

Dan, it's great that you're interested in milksnakes, they're a wonderful species. Asking questions is a great way to learn about an animal's needs before you decide to get one. That automatically puts you one step ahead of the average bozo who would just walk into Petco and buy whatever looks pretty without any forethought.

However, the speed with which you reply to peoples' posts, and the way you're asking the same questions over and over again, makes me wonder if you are really taking the time to read what people are writing for your benefit. People have posted several pictures just the way you wanted them. Several others have explained basic recessive/dominant genetic traits and the different morphs that are out there. I realize it's a fair amount of information to assimilate, but I really think you should slow down and take a closer look at some of the resources that are available to you. Drilling this forum for basic information (frequently asked question) is really not the best way to go about it. People have pointed out some good informational websites to check out... Terry's site, Albino Tricolors in the sponsors section near the top of the forum, and The King & Milk Snake Page, which is linked a little further up, would be good places to start. VPI (www.vpi.com) has some good info. on Andean and Sinaloan milks that you might find interesting, they are two other large and colorful subspecies. I strongly suggest you do some more research and come back to the forum with some well thought out questions. People generally don't mind answering thoughtful questions, but may lose patience at repeatedly answering simple ones. That is why FAQ documents exist.

Now, back to biting my tongue...

Nate

Thanks Nate, but every time I read a reply, it makes me have more questions...

Dan

I think this pic was posted some time ago by Shannon Brown. As I recall, it's supposed to be a wild-caught female that measured 8 feet, next to some humanoids no less!

Disclaimer: This is not my snake! I have no other pictures of it!

I do have a male Hypomelanistic Tangerine Honduran that I bought from Robert Applegate, who is just shy of five feet (the snake, not Bob!). He's 2 1/2 years old, 650 grams, and has been as gentle as a puppy since I bought him.

,

I really, really dig the Tri-Color Honduran Milksnake, the only problem is that they don't get that large. Some people are telling me that they can get 6 Feet, but most people are telling me that they really only get to about 4-5 Feet.

I don't know what to believe. Are the 5 & 6 Footers just freaks of nature? Are their parents large? I really want one, but 4 Feet is a bit small for me. Is there a way to guarantee a 5 Footer or 6 Footer???

Thank you,
Dan