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I've been maintaining an adult Male Eastern Milk Snake since the beginning of 2005. He has escaped twice, but is quite the captive. He's probably eaten over 50 mice since I got him. He sticks to "large pinkies" even though he is big enough for fuzzies and hoppers. He's around 25" with good body weight.

Well, for any of you that think adult Eastern Milks won't eat other snakes, he ate a live Northern Brown Snake last night. The Brown snake knew what was coming, he smelled the Milk I guess and knew what was going to happen, evidence by the nervousness and awkward tongue flicking. When the brown moved towards the milk, the milk just calmly turned his head and grabbed it, and started chewing. The Brown was about 10". No constriction was involved, so the brown escaped a couple times. But the 3rd time around it was swallowed. The feeding took about 10 minutes.

I'll be trying different species of snakes in his next feedings.

Mike

Michael's Place

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KingPin Reptiles Inc.
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If your milk is taking mice it's not a good idea to feed him something else. If it aquires a taste for something else you may have a problem turning him back to mice. Plus other snakes and such may carry some parasites that can eventually harm the milk snake. Just my opinion.
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Steve W.

I'd rather give him the snakes... lol. There is no shortage of snakes around here for me to use, I have other snakes in my collection that eat only snakes. Mice on the other hand, cost money, and right now it's something I'm low on.

And I highly doubt that even after a few snake feedings, that the milk will refuse a mouse.

Mike
Michael's Place

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Michael's Place has updated, better caresheets
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
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www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

You really should avoid feeding live reptiles caught in the wild. The chance of trasferring parasites that could kill your snake is very real.

In captivity, the parasites get much worse than if you milk snake was in the wild eating snakes. Bad idea.

Also...buy a big bag of frozen pinks from one of the dealers and they are very cheap. I assume you are a reptile - lover. Why would you take snakes out of the wild to feed your snake if you don't have to? You may not be as interested in Brown snakes...but they are cool little creatures as well.

50% of my collection eats what I can find outside. Whether it be worms, salamanders, snakes. The other 50% eats mice, but will also take worms, salamanders or snakes.

The ones that eat mice, rarely get anything different.

If the eastern milk wants to eat snakes, it can have snakes. It's not hurting the brown snake population around here, there are plenty. Mice cost money, and even though the eastern milk doesn't eat very much, those mice could still be used for another snake. Parasites don't bother me, and not all of my snakes will take f/t snakes, or f/t lizards, or f/t frogs, or I would freeze everything first to kill off parasites.

Besides, this could be an interesting study.

Mike
Michael's Place

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Michael's Place has updated, better caresheets
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake