Milks vs Kings: Sell me on colubrids

Hey there! Like many others, ball pythons were my entrance into the herping hobby, so I don’t have much experience outside of that.

Corns never appealed to me all that much, but I’ve been looking at different varieties of milk/king snakes and am fascinated.

I definitely would like one or two as pets but I honestly have no idea where to start.

California kings vs florida kings, aside from size, are there any noticable things in regards to care or temperament that I should be aware of?

Milk snakes, there’s so many of them, what should I know about the difference between Hondurans, Nelsons, Sinoloans, etc?

Mexican black kings, how do they compare to cali/fl kings and milks?

Thank you in advance! :purple_heart:
(Also totally take this opportunity to share pics of your snoots ;] )

5 Likes

Lol well, I saw the second half of your thread title and got all excited because I adore corn snakes. So many colors and patterns, fascinating possibilities for breeding, reasonable husbandry requirements, wonderful dispositions. I’ve had them for years as beloved home pets classroom pets asks educated outreach animals. But then there’s

Which is okay since everybody has their own thing. I like both milks and kings too. Young milks tend to be more bitey and flights and musky, I believe. Both milks and kings come in lots of morphs. Browsing through the Morphpedia and the listing for sale in MorphMarket can give you an idea of which looks appeal most to you. I’m sure someone will have more useful input about which they prefer and why.

I’ll just say good for you for researching choices before you buy. That’s so wise. It can only improve the long-term happiness for you and for whatever snake(s) you eventually choose.
PS - since you said we could share pics, here are some of mine. :wink:








8 Likes

Thank you for your input (and pics, omg what cuties!)
Corns are nice, I think I just get overwhelmed with how many morph options there are (it’s part of why I want to back off of BPs a bit), choice paralysis and all that. But also I’d appreciate having a garbage disposal or two on hand, especially with BP hatchlings and trying to size up or switch them over to f/t :joy:

There are so many varieties of kings and milks that I find really cool, it’s wrapping back around to the corn/BP issue :joy:
I get major choice paralysis!

5 Likes

I specialize in Fl/Brooksi Kings (and I’ve not kept the other colubrids mentioned) so my input is very biased lol :laughing:

They definitely are a wild tempered snake to work with, though they aren’t necessarily mean or defensive. They have an insanely good feed response and will mistake non food items as food, its happened to me a ton in the 12 or so years I’ve worked with them.

The good news is that you’ll most likely never have to waste a meal with them and you’ll never struggle with picky eaters.

Now another thing is, for how wild they act they actually tame down much easier than other “wild” species I’ve worked with. Once they get handleable to a point they know you are not food they are great to handle, they are very active and curious- so if thats your cup of tea then they’d made a great pet.

You just might need to have a snake hook handy to let them know you aren’t food when you take them out. :sweat_smile::joy:

Edit: I guess I should talk about their care as well :woman_facepalming: got too sidetracked in how their behavior is.

They are very easy to care for, they need a bit higher humidity than other Kings that I’ve noticed. I keep mine at about 65% ambient and 70-75% in humid hides, keep in mind their native range is in the Florida everglades.

Temperature range is the same as Ball Pythons to make it simple. About 72-75°F for cool side, 84-86°F for warm side and no higher than 90°F for basking. They like basking too, I often find mine laying on their basking areas at morning-noon.

They are diurnal, so feeding is reccomended more during daylight hours (mine eat just as well at night but I like to keep it closer to their most active part of the day).

And they will eat just about anything that is safe for them. I like to give mine mice, sometimes quail chicks and chicken organs… its a hit or miss but my late female absolutely loved hard boiled egg as a treat. I feed babies every 5 days, juveniles once a week and sub-adult/adults every 10-14 days.

You’ll need to offer deep substrate that can hold its shape somewhat, they like to burrow too.

5 Likes

This is very helpful, thank you for the in-depth reply!

This certainly makes them sound pretty spicy, at least at the start, so I’ll definitely keep that in mind!

4 Likes

deep sighs
I made the mistake of looking at sold pueblan milksnake listings :sweat_smile:
It seems most people have new hatchlings around August, so note to self to watch a few breeders that dabble in Halloween and Albinos :joy:
I see some albino nelson x pueblans, but on the off-chance I enjoy them enough to breed, I want to keep to pure varieties.

At the moment I’m most interested in pueblans and black milks. August will be a couple of months after I move, so things will have had time to settle :eyes:

2 Likes

Yes they are definitely more spicy as little ones, thankfully during that time their bites do absolutely nothing lol, even as adults I’ve never gotten any notable bites from them… its more funny than anything :laughing:

2 Likes

I’m going to throw another option at you to consider and that is mexicana complex of kings. They are, in my opinion, criminally underrated. I have a trio of San Luis Potosi, L. mexicana mexicana. I find them to be a bit more chill than some larger kings. Since they are on the smaller side they may not serve as good garbage disposals as some of the other options. I do also have an MBK who is much more food motivated and is definitely my personal garbage disposals.




5 Likes

Yes ma’am you are so correct about this! Bites are one thing but the musk is the worst kind of stink!

2 Likes

Choice paralysis? No problem! Just get one of each!!! See! Problem solved! :joy:

2 Likes

Black Mexican King Snakes make great pets and they are absolutely GORGEOUS! They are so shiny black and velvety looking!!!

2 Likes

Honduran milks are the largest of the milks. The albinos and tangerines are stellar.

2 Likes

That one is stunning Erin! It kinda reminds of the gray banded kings? The gray bandeds are so pretty!

1 Like

@desolim As someone who has owned 2 types of your choices, though not the exact specific ones, and as one who owns quite a number of corns right now, I guarantee you will not be plagued with musking or picky eaters, maybe just a nip of 2 at first from a corn, especially if you ended up with a juvenile.

But then again I am a bit prejudiced……

3 Likes

@desolim And of course, there are also little cutie patooties like these:

2 Likes

I haven’t done much research into this side as I briefly read somewhere about some varieties being lizard-eaters that can be difficult to get established on mice. So I kinda stopped the research there :sweat_smile:
Is that accurate, or pretty overblown?

2 Likes

Don’t tempt me, I’m trying to start small- I already have a small collection of BPs :joy:

2 Likes

I’m not against corns, there are a couple of morphs I really like but the genetics side is much more confusing than BPs imo- like I’ve wanted a candy cane corn snake since 2010, I never find them at shows and looking online they seem to just be amelanistics, but polygenetics are responsible for the white background?

If I could wrap my head around it, I’d be more open to them :joy:

2 Likes

Hoggies are cute, my friend is obsessed with them and I’ve looked into them a little bit- I’d need a permit for eastern/western hoggies apparently, due to them being native.
They have but a singular braincell, and that braincell says “eat”, and honestly, I can respect that :rofl:

2 Likes

So are you looking to breed down the road? Since you are concerned about genetics?

2 Likes