

It is a slender snake, with the red bands being about twice as wide as the black and white bands. The Louisiana Milk is on the small side, growing to reach 2 feet in length at most. Another good subspecies for beginners, the Honduran Milk is hardy, but can be nervous, so watch out for bites. It’s a brightly colored snake with wide bandings in red, black, and orange-yellow. It grows to be 4 to 5 feet in length with a stout, thick body. The Honduran Milksnake is one of the most popular Milksnake subspecies. The Eastern milk is easy to care for and is great for beginners. Most snakes of this species have a brown arrowhead or spearpoint pattern on top of their head, similar to a cornsnake. It takes on a gray and reddish brown coloring with a spotted pattern. This snake is quite common in the United States and can grow from 2 to 4 feet in length.
#Honduran milksnake morphs full
Even adults of this variety may only be able to eat pinky mice when full grown. The coloring is usually red, black, and yellowish white with very narrow banding. Central Plains MilksnakeĪ smaller species of Milksnake, the Central Plains Milksnake grows to be just 2 feet long at most. Adults of this variety can be nervous, so take care when first picking one up. Its color gradually changes, becoming covered with dark pigments until it has turned a blackish brown or entirely black. As a hatchling, it is either red, black, and white, or yellow in color. The Black Milksnake is a large variety, growing to about 4 to 6 feet in length. This is a nonvenomous, typically docile species that is perfect for beginners. Here are several of the most easily found and popular varieties of Milksnake. Today there are more than two-dozen different subspecies of Milksnake only about ten to fifteen different subspecies are readily available from breeders and dealers as captive-bred specimens. Of course this isn’t true, it’s barely believable, but the name stuck. Legend has it that the snakes would slither into barns at night, curl around the legs of milk cows, and sup on their milk straight from the udder. Now the letter and spirit of the law can be more closely aligned.Milksnakes are a subspecies of the Kingsnake. Strictly speaking, as (former) members of Lampropeltis triangulum, they were illegal, though in practical terms they were obviously not local snakes. If nothing else, it’ll make things more clear in the pet trade, especially here, where Eastern Milk Snakes are a local, protected species (and lousy captives, to boot), whereas Mexican and Central American Milk Snakes are in every pet store. Whether this one holds, or is refined further, is anyone’s guess. I’m no herpetologist, but to my amateur eyes this makes considerable sense, and upends a taxonomical paradigm that was clearly unsustainable. It’s found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela. South American Milk Snake ( Lamproletis micropholis) includes the Andean ( andesiana), black ( gaigae) and Ecuadorian ( micropholis) subspecies.It’s found from southeastern Mexico (Guerrero, Veracruz) to Costa Rica. Central American Milk Snake ( Lampropeltis abnorma) includes the Guatemalan ( abnorma), Blanchard’s ( blanchardi), Honduran ( hondurensis), Pacific American ( oligozona), Stuart’s ( stuarti) subspecies, as well as some populations of the Conant’s ( conanti) and Atlantic Central American ( polyzona) subspecies.Mexican Milk Snake ( Lampropeltis polyzona) includes the former Jalisco ( arcifera), Pueblan ( nelsoni), Sinaloan ( sinaloae) and Smith’s ( smithi) subspecies, as well as some populations of the Conant’s ( conanti) and Atlantic Central American ( polyzona) subspecies.Tamaulipas (Mexican) Milk Snake ( Lampropeltis annulata) includes Dixon’s Milk Snake ( dixoni) and most populations of the former Mexican subpsecies ( annulata), and is found in northeastern Mexico and Texas.Scarlet Kingsnake ( Lampropeltis elapsoides), found in the southeastern U.S., is unchanged.


The Coastal Plains Milk Snake (“ temporalis“), previously considered an intergrade between the Eastern Milk Snake and Scarlet Kingsnake ( elapsoides), is also included. triangulum) subspecies and adds Louisiana Milk Snakes ( amaura) from northeastern Louisiana and most populations of Red Milk Snakes ( syspila). Eastern Milk Snake ( Lampropeltis triangulum), found in northeastern and central North America, includes the former Eastern ( L.
