I just recently got myself my first ever snake and I wanna make sure that everything is in place for him to thrive. He’s about 5 months old and I’ve had him for about 2 weeks now. I was hoping anyone can help out with telling me what kind of milksnake i got, the seller wasn’t very helpful in telling me what kind. I set up a heating pad on one side to create a heat gradient and feed him frozen/thawed every 5 days. I was wondering if i should add more stuff in the enclosure or if it’s fine. Any help would be very appreciated!
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Congrats on your new little noodle and welcome~
The creative censoring made me laugh.
The pattern for your little guy would most likely fall under aberrant. It’s basically a catch all for a pattern that isn’t the usual bars and isn’t the stripe patterns some can come in.
The species is unfortunately a bit more difficult to say… I’m not the best at IDing colubrids. I’d lean towards sinaloan personally because I’ve seen a few with similar offcenter bars or circles like yours. Hopefully someone else has a better guess if anything. Maybe a couple photos in natural light can help.
For your habitat…
It’s a good basic starter enclosure. I would personally keep it this way until you have some good feelings about the behaviors, feeding, potty habits and such. Just to make sure he’s healthy before giving him all the opportunities to hide away in nooks and crannies.
For the rest, what are your temps and the humidity like? Are you checking temps with a temp gun for surfaces? Is the heat pad regulated with a thermostat and if so, what’s the temperature of the bottom of the enclosure where it is?
Generally a good gradient to have is a hot side around 80-85, a basking spot with a surface temp no higher than around 88-91 and a cool side around 70-75. Humidity can vary a lot but 60% isn’t a bad one to shoot for and offer some damp moss in the hides to help boost in there.
I’m sure some of the colubrid keepers here can pinpoint a perfect setup, but the above should be a good starting point to aim for good digestion and thermoregulating until then.
Feeding every 5 days is a good start for these little guys. But don’t be too worried about spacing it out to every 7 if you need to. Prey should be slightly larger than the thickest part of your snake.
You could weigh out 10-15% of your snake’s weight but I feel eyeballing size is a bit easier for colubrids I worked with.
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Such a cool pic! At 5 months old this little guy will do just fine with feeding every 7 days and not every 5 days. I assume you are feeding fuzzies? Even if he is eating well you could add some fake greenery/cork bark, etc to his enclosure. It will enhance the look. If he looks like he is still looking for food after his meal you can always feed a second fuzzy until he is ready for hoppers.
As far as the enclosure goes, it will do just fine for him until he becomes longer than the length and the width (depth) combined. You can even upgrade him to a 34 qt sterilite tub after that until you decide what his permanent adult enclosure will be. Your choice of course.
If that’s a water “bowl” on the right it’s too tall (deep). A water dish at least half that size would be a much better. Since he is in a tub he should have no issues with shedding. If necessary you can also move his water dish to the hot side during a shed proces.
Plastic tubs hold heat and humidity so much better than glass. 85 to 90 degrees is ideal for the warm side with a basking spot of no higher than 90 degrees.
Good luck with him! He’s a little cutie!
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thank you very much for the kind reply. The temp on his hot side is about 29.4C (84.5F) and cold side is around 22C (71.6F). Humidity on the hot side is around 40 while the cooler side is around 60. I attached some more pictures in natural light if it can be of any help. i also noticed that over the past week, his white/ cream stripes are becoming yellow. Is that a cause of concern?
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I am currently feeding him pinkies, the littlest mice available as he is super tiny. I will look for a more shallow water bowl, thanks for noting that out.
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Beautiful!
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He’s a pretty milk snake! I’m not as familiar with them as corns, so I can’t comment knowledgeably on color or morph, but I can say it is totally normal for corns to develop yellows as they mature. I doubt you have anything to worry about.
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Ok sounds good! I really couldn’t see his size from the first picture. If he is that tiny still you definitely need to replace the water container you have in the soon because if he gets in there he could very well drown. I’m not being critical of you in any way. I just don’t want anything to happen to him.
He is a really nice little milk. Has he musked or peed on you yet? Mine as babies always did along with some occasional nips! 
Edit to add: if he is that small and still eating pinks, every 5 day feedings is a good thing and probably should be continued. Also he will be able to use his current enclosure for quite awhile……
Edit to add: he does look to be a Sinaloan or at least part sinaloan……
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Sometimes when snakes are stressed the colors can change a bit. So going from a paler red and white to deeper red and yellow can happen. It’s a good sign that he’s settling in.
You’ll also see some changes as he gets close to shedding. So don’t be surprised if he looks pale and has gone ‘blue’. His eyes will look cloudy too.
And big agree on changing out the water bowl. You can still offer something wide for added humidity, but keep the water shallow and the edge of the bowl short so he can get in and out easily
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Alright, will definitely change the bowl asap then. Thanks again).
Yeahh when i handled him for the first couple of times he musked a good bit, but gradually it became less till the last time i took him out (today) he hasn’t dropped a single drop of musk! I really hope that he has gotten over it already
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Alright thanks a lot for the input! How can I tell that he started shedding by the way? Are the eyes becoming blue/ cloudy the first thing to take place? I just don’t want to be bothering him when he starts shedding.
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Yup that’s the worst thing about baby milks! 
. He will get better eventually. This is a predatory protection in the wild as baby milks are easy pickins for larger animals……
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Haha yeahh, i can only imagine how it feels like to be a lil noodle in the wilderness.
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The eyes looking blue and cloudy are the biggest sign they’re going to shed soon. Sometimes you’ll see a little pink on the belly too.
I try not to feed mine when they’re in blue cause the digestion process takes a lot of the resources away from the shedding process and you can end up with some patchy stuck shed. There’s also a chance of regurge as well. It’s not as common as the bad sheds can be.
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