Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So, I am a married mom of 2 young boys and we are thinking of adding a snake to our family. Our animal family includes a border collie/lab mix dog, 2 RES (both in a 120 gallon tank), 40 hermit crabs (my hermies have a 125 gallon tank, they are a little spoiled), a community fish tank, goldfish, and aquatic frogs.

My three, almost four, year old is an animal lover, as are we. For the last 2 years (literally) he has been asking for a snake. Being loving and doting parents, we are inclined to indulge. Of course, we know enough to know that our young child is incapable of caring for a snake. But we are excited to learn all we can about the care requirements for milk and/or king snakes.

From the research I have done so far, it appears as though they need a temp gradient (85 on the high end, 70 on the low), humidity ranging from 40-60% (nice change from the 75-80% hermit crabs require) heat source primarily from radient light source, UTH as a secondary. But here are my questions:

What type of substrate do you recommend?

Would a 55 gallon tank be adequate for a small king or milk snake?

Do they need UVA/UVB lighting during their photoperiod light cycle?

Do they really eat the frozen food if it is reheated?

Which type of snake seems to be milder in temperament, milk snakes or king snakes?

I really appreciate any and all responses.

Thanks, again!

Andrea

Your best choice would be the milk snake. In my experience they are active and make very good pets. A 55 gallon tank is more than enough you could even use a 20. ONE PER CAGE milk snakes are cannabilistic because they are related to the kingsnakes. Make sure you do not get a hot rock because it may cause burns. They are not normally dangerous to your dog.

Reptibark is a very good substrate. Yes, snakes eat unthawed frozen mice and such. I think that a Corn snake would be much more better than a milk or king and you can go check out the corn snake forum and everyone there can help you out. Also UTH are a way better source of heat than a lamp, some snakes need lighting like water snakes and green snakes but they are not for beginners. You should deffinetly look into corn snakes, there are 100's of morphs and i think your son would really like them. Just check out the corn snake forum.

-----
1.0 Albino Corn "Lucky"
1.0 Snow Corn "Snow"
0.0.4 Southern Ringneck "Collar", "Bc", "Lazy", "Biggie"
1.0 Green Amevia "Gizard"

I agree with candb the corn snake is a better choice.

Hi Andrea,

Here is an article on the captive care of kingsnakes and milksnakes:

http://www.kingsnake.com/rockymountain/RMHPages/RMHkingsand.htm

I agree with the other posters that overall cornsnakes are a better choice, but there are some pretty good tempered kings and milks such as Sinaloan milksnakes and grey-banded kingsnakes. California kingsnakes in my experience have been a bit too enthusiastic in their feeding response (I've been bitten more than once by an overeager animal).

Snakes will eat reheated mice-to do this you put the frozen mouse in a plastic bag and float it in some hot water for about 10 minutes.

Hope this helps,

Petra Spiess

Here are some links I used for looking for one I wanted.
http://milksnakes.com/encyclopedia.htm
http://www.kingsnake.com/highsierra/htm/menu_othermilks.htm
http://www.cornsnakemorphs.com/genetics.html
http://cornsnakes.net/
http://www.serpenco.com/shop/customer/
http://www.exoticsbynature.com/snakephoto.html#milk

dont know if that helps, but hopefully it does.
a 55G tank is double what you need for a small milk/king
For some reason I think that Milk snakes would probably be the more docile of the 2, but a Corn Snake would be the most docile.

and you can look up some care sheets on google.

-Nate

Wow, thank you everyone for your responses. I really appreciate your thoughts and opinions on this. And thank you for the links, I have a lot of reading to do : )

Andi