Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Like the perfect ash on a cigar a perfect milk can be hard to come by. Here are a few choice milks from over the years.

Cole's perfect red cap multistrata, Cherry Co.

Madison Co. syspila, one of the best Red's I've ever seen.

Although this one is very close to being a classic looking perfect syspila.

I always thought this Kansas milk was a classic looking phenotype for gentilis. And he's still out there in Elsworth Co. somewhere.

Dave Niles came up with a perfect eastern I think.

And this might be a perfect sockhead L. t. campbelli in Cole's collection.

I always liked that Vivid Reptiles line of hundurensis, these aren't from that line but they look like they could be.

This dirty gaigeae isn't so perfect looking as a juvenile.

But as an adult is pretty sweet looking.

I'll end on a near perfect multistrata from Cherry Co., and a not so near perfect multistrata.
Near Perfect.

Not so near Perfect. Still a great milk, and gravid in this photo.

Let's see what you all have for classic phenotypes in your collection. The first one to post an albino is a trolling loser. There is a place for albinos, just not in this thread.
Sorry Gerard I'm not trying to pick on you or your sweet looking annulata.

-Dell

Perfect is right, but as I've said... I've come to expect that from the posts that you and Cole make.

Perhaps when I return from visiting my son I'll take you up on the offer to post pictures... I know the two polyz are willing.

Have a great Thanksgiving Dell... and all of you that may read this!

Gerry

Yeah Gerry lets see those south of the boarder examples. How's Nate doing, is he still keeping milks? I haven't seen him post in a while.

-Dell

Nathan is doing fine and yes he's still keeping milks... has his gaigeae of course as well as a sinaloae (his first pet if I recall correctly), a pair of micropholis x andesiana and a boa given to him as a rescue animal.

As to why he doesn't post more often... my guess is the answer falls somewhere between he has little to say and his thinking I say too much. Rather a shame because right now he's "sitting" on a young gaigeae with very cool head markings... I'd post pics of it in a heartbeat before those markings disappear... get the hint boy

Gerry

I think my dear old Sinaloan, Columbia, may be the most "perfect" of my snakes, pattern-wise... complete, evenly spaced triads, all the way down to the tip of her tail.

Don't know if it's a male or not but I've named it Groucho... rather a shame the picture doesn't show the two small paired spots on the prenasal scales... that wasn't a hint by the way.

Gerry

Dell,

First of all its great to see you hanging out here and posting. Second of all, glad to see a few syspila made your cut!

Here are a few of mine...

First off, a perfect group of milkheads...

A few perfect syspila

and my personal favorite syspila (sorry its not the best pic)

a perfect Tyrrell county NC temporalis.

and her son, a 2010 holdback that should go this year

A pefect Ltt - Baltimore Co Maryland

Two more perfect Ltt both from Amherst County VA, both owned by my buddy Ryan Ferrell, both are spending the winter and spring with me

A near perfect Cosala Mexico Sinaloae

His offspring from 2011...A perfect milk in my opinion

Last but not least...a perfect black milk...the "moose". She is no longer with me but not forgotten

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Dave

DNS Reptiles - Milk Snakes

That was a fun trip last spring. Dave you shouldn't be surprised that syspila made the cut, you should be surprised that triangulum triangulum made the cut.

Love those sinaloae you work w/, they have to be one of the nicest looking line of milks in the whole hobby in my opinion.

Sierra Madre Occidental, milks snakes.

-Dell

That 2011 Cosala Sin is INCREDIBLE!

I'd crawl through a mile of broken glass to have something like that.

Awesome snakes Dave! The Baltimore eastern milk and the young Cosala Sinaloan are my favorites. Those sinaloans are at the top of my wish list lol.
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www.kingpinreptiles.com

It's really difficult to come upon an exceptional animal that can honestly be called perfect... Look at each and every band, including the tail. Are they all perfectly uniform, or does one or more have deviations, pattern interuptions, incompleteness, or a slight difference that stands out to the trained "anal retentive"?

Here's an albino bullseye Nelsoni that I purchased that is the closest to perfect as I've ever seen. Others have seen the photo, and said they've seen as good or better, but as of today, I've never seen their photos... (:

Nice animals there BTW!

Gross it's got pink eyes.
"The first one to post an albino is a trolling loser."
Congratulations Drdan you are the trolling loser.
I think most milk keepers will agree that there isn't a pure albino L. t. nelsoni in the hobby today.

The question of a perfect milk was meant to be subjective, because there is never a perfect example.

-Dell

Here's a perfect, pin-banded annulata from Dave Niles:

A photo you took of one of my Salina Cruz, Oaxaca locality Lampropeltis triangulum oligozona x conanti. Probably one of the coolest looking milks I've worked with from "south of the border".

I'd say this Thomas Co., NE Lampropeltis triangulum multistrata you flipped this spring was pretty close to perfect, wouldn't you?

Does a perfect day of herping for milks count? Here's (from left to right) Jeff, Dell, Mike, Dave, John, and Cody.

Here's a perfectly crossed-over, flame-sided, Lampropeltis triangulum gentilis from a high-elevation locality.

Here's Jeff's "famously perfect" Blazing Line, Cherry Co., NE locality Lampropeltis triangulum mulitstrata. This thing is bad-ass in person.

Here he is as a juvenile.

My good buddy Jose Ole (aka, Prybar; aka, Matt) has hatched and photographed some of the most incredible Lampropeltis triangulum multistrata ever. You can't discuss perfect milks and not mention Jose. Here are two perfect examples from Cherry Co., NE that he both hatched and photographed.
1.

2.

Hopefully this guy is still out there in Stillwater Co., MT making perfect babies!

This Stillwater Co., MT pale was perfect, too.

To close, I'll add this perfect little Lampropeltis triangulum syspila

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-Cole

Cole... extraordinary animals all... but that female flame sided gentilis deserves the adjective "perfect"... every time you post one of them I'm thinking that is exactly what I want in my "north of the border" when the day comes.

Gerry

... but that female flame sided gentilis deserves the adjective "perfect"... every time you post one of them I'm thinking that is exactly what I want in my "north of the border" when the day comes.

Just say the words, Gerry! LOL
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-Cole

You picked some good ones here Cole, that annulata from Dave is such a great looking animal. The Pale photos from Jose' are two of the best multistrata I've ever seen.
Good picks all of them.

Of the milks I have purchased... without a doubt the perfect one is my female polyzona Morticia... snapped a few pics of her this morning and while trying to decide which one to post I heard her moving about in her cage... I could not have set up a better picture of her to show why she is perfect.

first photo of her just chilling out under the plants as usual...

And her deciding to show Dell why I consider her perfect... I find it amusing that two short years ago she took up little more space than the wood chips you see on that log...

I was going to include Gomez, the male, in these pictures but he's heavily in blue.

Gerry

Sweet Gerry, thanks for posting.

-Dell

Dang!!! Terry that almost perfect cherry is a perfect 10 in my book what a clean snake, that gentilis also is very nice.

I only have one "cherry" snake and its my jackson co Mo syspila

this one was from Platte co Mo. and very nice as well and is still out there

This is my favorite Jeff Ks syspila

some of my favorite eastern ks syspilas

this was a really nice platte co mo syspila and very big didn't have a good camera at the time though

heres a sanderson Tx celaenops I purchased from Fraser

this is my pair together

In closing another pic of my Jackson co Mo syspila, I don't know why some of my pics are showing up large and small could be I am not on my computer

again awesome stuff Dell
Later
Brandon DeCavele

Great looking syspila that first one, boarding on screamer. Love the celaenops too. The in hand shot of those two shows how clean they really are. What would you expect from Fraser line milks?

Nice whitetail too, is that from this year?

-Dell

Dell,
Thank you for your kind words. Yes I got that Buck november 12th at around 7:30 am, in Benton Co Mo, he is an 8 pointer but would have been a nine, he had his inner large tine broke off. My dad has 4 trailer camp lots down there that back right up to core land which is public hunting at truman lake. Its good for syspila too. the only time I had scouted it out was for snakes but I remembered thinking this would be a great spot to sit for deer and sure enough.

I also like this Jackson co syspila not from the same spot as my nice female or the one below, this one was released

This female is from the same rock as my "nice" female
I like her wide saddles

these were two of my favorite flips this year

My "nice" female syspila again

A deer I found out of season, I don't think I would have taken this one though lol I admired the lil fellar though

the smallest flat head catfish I caught all year aswell lol

Thanks again and nice animals to you as well that cherry co is Smokin!

Not sure if I'd call this guy perfect but he's got the three qualities I like in milks I keep: Size (he is nearly 6 feet), awesome eater (he chows on small rats whenever I put them in his cage) and he is very calm to hold.

This is a six-year-old Andean milk. He weighs just shy of 1,400 grams. He's a traditional tri-color variety with the moderate black tipping you see in Andeans. A very blunt nose on him gives him a bulldog appearence in my mind. Excessively strong snake but not aggressive - unless you are holding a rat in your hand. He'll be breeding to a slightly more tangerine version of this species in either 2013 or more likely 2014.

Rob Haneisen

I'll tell ya Rob, that milk fits the criteria for a perfect milk hands down.
I found it interesting that you brought up size of a snake. There is something to a huge robust milk snake.
Thanks for showing us this beast.

-Dell