milk snakes

Are they good snakes? They look really cool but i hear that they strike a lot....is this true?

I have a pair of black milks and neither have ever tried to strike unless they're being fed. They're a bit wiry and move around a lot when they're young, but calm down when they get older. Great pets!

I only have a bit of experience with 2 species now (Sinaloan and Pueblan), but I haven't found them to be strikey. They wiggle like mad, move really fast, pee, musk, and generally throw a fit, but I haven't had one strike at me. I'm very fond of the sinaloan, for temperment. Either that, or the one I had was unusually nice.

From my experience with the ones ive worked with,

Andeans, ive got a female who is super mean (which is unusual for them), but my male is extremely calm and very docile, easiest snake I have to handle. I love their large size for a milksnake.

Pueblans, very docile and laid back.

Black Milksnakes, the ones ive worked with try and escape as soon as you pull the tub out, other than that they are very laid back and docile. Another large sized milk.

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Originally Posted by bjfoste1

Are they good snakes? They look really cool but i hear that they strike a lot....is this true?

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Like kings, young Honduran milksnakes will musk and possibly bite if restrained however they do calm down with time.

I have three hondurans.. one adult and two juvies. The juvie female used to bite when she was younger, but she's better now, still really wiggly though. The other two are active but have never bitten.

I also have an albino nelson's milk. He's never bitten and is calmer than all of my hondos.

Our daughter has a female Albino Nelson's. Couldn't ask for a more laid back milksnake (or a prettier one as far as I'm concerned). Emi hasn't musked anyone since she was a hatchling, has never nipped, has never even hissed. I've always read that Nelson's are known for their more gentle ways though they still remain of course major escape artists and busy snakes to handle like most colubrids are. We did all handle Emi quite a bit as a small snake...just a lot of gentle handling without overdoing it or scaring her...so perhaps that's helped her be very accepting of it. We've used Emi in school snake visits and she's just a doll when it comes to being around a lot of people.