Hobbies And Interests
Milk Snakes
Milk snakes range from 24 to 52 inches long and are usually slender. Though there are a lot of color variations among milk snakes, the skin is usually characterized by black borders and a blotchy pattern. Milk snakes like to hide under rocks, piles of debris, wood piles, grasslands that border woodlands and near waterways. These snakes are most active between April and September.
Diet
A milk snake's diet in the wild is varied. Amphibians, invertebrates, mice, rabbits, birds and their eggs, and even other reptiles and their eggs are all part of a wild milk snake's diet. The diet of captive milk snakes is often a bit more mundane, consisting mainly of small rodents.
Hatchlings and Subadults
Milk snakes mate in spring or early summer, after which the female lays about 10 eggs in a warm and humid area. The eggs incubate for 28 to 39 days and hatch in the fall. Captive hatchlings will rarely accept food before their first shedding, which occurs between 6 and 14 days after they hatch. Between two and three weeks after the first shedding, the hatchling should be ready for its first meal -- something small, but big enough to leave a lump in the snake after it is consumed. A "pinkie", or baby mouse, is a good first meal. Young snakes need to feed about once every five days, with the size of the meal increasing as the snake grows.
Adults
Rodents are an adult milk snake's main food item, though it does eat other creatures. A constrictor, the milk snake will coil around its prey and squeeze it until it suffocates before eating it. In the wild, milk snakes will also dine on venomous snakes as they are partially immune to the venom. In captivity, male milk snakes should be fed every seven to ten days. Breeding females who will be laying eggs should be fed more often, about twice a week. As a general rule, food offered to the snake should be about as big as the thickest part of the milk snake's body. Be sure pet snakes always have access to clean drinking water, as well. Captive milk snakes should be fed less in the two weeks before the lowering of the temperatures in their enclosures for their hibernation period.