Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Seems like the vast majority of the visitors to this forum are working with the larger Mexican and tropical species.

I know Jeff H. works with locality US milks...who else?
I'd love to see pics of your animals or just hear what you are working with.

So...who's working with:

- Red milks
- central plains
- pales
- LA milks
- NM milks

???

I've bred LA Milks before, but the babies are just too small to have a reasonable chance at feeding in captivity. It is like breeding scarlet kings, they will breed and the babies readily eat small skinks, but they are too small for pinks and don't like them anyway.

Here is one of the males I used to have from SE Texas -

-----
Chris Harrison
Does anyone else here think that these scrolling signature lines are stupid?

I used to think the same thing about getting the babies of the smaller species to eat, but Jeff Hardwick introduced me to his method of "encouraging" (not quite force feeding) them to take tails of fuzzy mice. They then (often at least) imprint on the smell of mice and actually grow while eating just the tails...and are soon ready to take small pinks.

Jeff would be able to explain better, but he's breeding many of the smaller species and having good luck getting them started that way.

I have a male '04 gentilis that he produced and started that way
last year, and by the time I got it, it would take f/t pinkies right out of my hand.

That method has got me seriously contemplating working with some of the smaller US milks. Still, they are more difficult than the larger subs....but it's rewarding for me at least to work with locality US natives...

That's all I keep. Working mostly with pales, but I also have a few temporalis and one pair each of gentilis and eastern milks. I've gotten several screamer pales from Jeff H. As for feeding, besides using tails you can also try Peromyscus mice (deer mice). They've worked wonders for me. In my experience, baby pales can easily tackle whole Peromyscus pinks. But deer mice are a HUGE pain in the butt to keep and don't produce litters with any great frequency. And if you go that route DON'T use wild mice (virus carriers), get them from a reputable lab.

Todd

Here's one of my favorite pales, a Thomas County, Nebraska male from Brian Mason:

thanks for the pic.
Do you have a website or a gallery of pics of your other snakes?

I'd love to see more...
Dean

No, I don't have a website or gallery yet. I think I've posted most of these online before. Here's a few other pale milks from the collection. These are mainly baby pics, pales will tend to dull and gray out significantly as they age.

Todd

Cherry County, Nebraska (from Jeff H.)

Cherry County, Nebraska (from Jeff H.)

Sheridan County, Nebraska (from Brian Mason)

Pennington County, South Dakota (via Jeff H.)

Powder River County, Montana (from John Yurkovich)

those are great milk pics, I found this female this past spring and she laid seven eggs
Can you post a few pics of the adult pales ?

Beautiful. Where did you find her?
-Cole

She is from central Kansas

Very nice! My gentilis are also from central Kansas and the female laid a clutch of four huge eggs on June 2nd.

Congrats and good luck with yours.

I love those Pale milks. Are they very hard to find in Nebraska ?

Some people know where and when to look for them and can find them fairly easily. But that's not me yet. I went over there once on my own hoping for photographs and never saw a thing besides one lizard and a turtle in NE and a racer in SD. Temps were ~100, though (so that's my excuse for failure, lol).

And be aware that collecting pale milks is no longer allowed in Nebraska unless you are a resident or have a scientific permit.

Todd

Here's a shot of Cherry County Nebraska, overlooking the Niobrara River:

Great snakes! Work with any other localities of pales?
-Cole

I currently have these five localities of pales:

Cherry, Sheridan and Thomas Counties - Nebraska
Pennington County - South Dakota
Powder River County - Montana

Todd

easier than normal domestic mice but yes they do not put out that many babies.......

here's the floor plan.....and I been breeding them for 13 yesrs now?.......with about 15 tanks going all the time....

.....

10 gallon tank
1.4 mice
pine shavings
8 oz water bottle refilled every 5 days.
a handful of dog food every 5 days
a handful of lab chow too every 5 days
and 2 handfuls of corn every 5 days.......

I use seed too...........oats etc.as treats..potatoe if they have alot of babies (sometimes0....

apple,veggies ,etc,if you feel nice.....

I clean them every 3 weeks.......feed every 5 days.....

kill the whole tank and start new every 6 months just like rats,mice,gerbils,hamsters etc etc

they smell less than regular mice and you don't have to feed every day or clean every week.....

..........

ok.you can pull all the deer pinks and replace them with domestic pinks.in a day or 2 you can pull all those pinks and replace again...after the deer milk goes through them they too smell like deer now......you can also just rub regular mouse pinks on the dirty side of the tank.........OR better yet take one hopper (or whatever) deer and kill it..cut it open and rub regular mice in the blood and brains.then open the gut and rub another 30 pinks.....this way you can use one deer hop and rub as many pinks in it as you like ......so you do not have to kill all the deer mice......

Peromyscus peucopus are actually white footed mice.not the cousin the deer mouse......same genus..

good luck.have fun........

for small snakes like eastern milk babies.I have also taken regular pinks and ground them up with scissors and made mouse hamburger and placed it on a lid and the babies will eat it like mash..........worked at least a few times years ago....

Thanx..Jeffrey Yohe..........
-----
................aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhOK

They bite. Hard! At least mine do, maybe you have calmer ones. I keep Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii (Deer Mice) and even though they've been lab bred for decades they still mostly exhibit wild-type behavior. That means they jump and are very quick, nothing like the slow domesticated "pet" mice we're used to. You can't simply pick them up by the tail like you would with regular mice. Well, you can, but they'll bite the bejeezus out of your fingers. Heavy gloves and a quick hand are definitely required.

Ric Blair has the nicest celaenops that i've seen. Many localities also.
-----
Steve W.

This beautiful little girl was brought to me from a friend of mine. She was caught in the Delta region of Mississippi. She's missing her tail from her vent down. Turns out she was gravid and layed 4 perfect eggs. I am very excited to say the least!

Hey Dean,
here are some pics of my NM milks. This is my first round with milks. I got the pair from Tad Fitzgerald back in 01. The male has only recently really started to accept rodents, other than that, they are fantastic. I did not expect them to get as large as my female at 28". The eggs should hatch in mid august, they have almost doubled in size since laid.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/herpics/

Dean, what are your couperi prospects for the next few years, I would like to get on a waiting list if possible.

I should have 3 female couperi ready to go this fall...but you never know with indigos. Send me an email at herpconservation@hotmail.com if you want to get on the waiting list.

Sweet milks!

Scarlet kings.

Here is an adult pair of celaenops from Albouquerque,New Mexico. These are descended from the old Jim Kane line of New Mexicos. This pair will soon be shipped to Tom In PA. i haven't seen many for sale lately from this locale. In my experience the males seem to always look nicer than the female. i also work with hypo syspila as well as taylori and multistrata.

-----
Snakeyes herpetoculture

here are a pair of adult, very milksnake looking multistrata from cherry cty. NE.

-----
Snakeyes herpetoculture

As time goes on, I think these animals are going to become more sought after. The US milks are gorgeous...and often overlooked with the popularity of hondos, sinaloans, etc.

Working with the Eastern Milk Snakes.... got an adult female on the way. Talk about hard to obtain.

Also working with Scarlet Kingsnakes...

Cancelled a Red Milk Snake project.

Mike

Michael's Place

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

I wish I could keep some easterns...but...no natives allowed in Ohio. Even if they are cb from another state.

That snake in the pic is a beautiful eastern.

St Marys MD. milk a year away from breeding size. Anyone have a male form same area ?

taylori hatchlings (Rifle Colorado locality)