Description:
One of the most attractive and easiest milk snakes to care for, a Mexican milk snake will be at home in a 20-gallon terrarium with a secure screen top. The substrate can be aspen or a mixture of sand and potting soil about 2 inches deep. Newspaper can also be used. Keep specimens individually. The terrarium should have a curved piece of bark or other attractive decoration as a hiding spot. Though nocturnal, these snakes often bask for short periods during the day, and they will use a small basking lamp over a flat rock or other basking surface. Keep the temperature between 78 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit, dropping a few degrees at night. Temperatures over 90 degrees are not necessary or desirable. Give clean drinking water in a small bowl and replenish it several times a week. Specimens generally are tame and easy to handle. This is one of the easiest milk snakes to feed, as even young specimens readily take pinky to hopper mice, while adults will take small adult mice. Feeding often succeeds best if the food is placed in the terrarium just before the lights are turned off for the night. A calcium supplement should be dusted on pinky mice fed to babies. Feed once or twice a week.
Habitat:
Although often found in relatively dry prairie habitats, Mexican milk snakes also are commonly found in open grasslands and old fields and are taken on roads at night. They are mostly nocturnal, spending the day in hiding, usually under logs and in mammal burrows.
Range:
Central Texas into northeastern Mexico.
Scientific Name: Lampropeltis triangulum annulata
Species Group: milk-snake
Family: Colubridae
Size: 24 to 30 inches, heavy-bodied compared to many other milk snakes.
Level: beginner
Weight:
Dangerous: No
