Eastern Milksnake

[hvhoward]

Good evening. I'm a newbie to the forums and snakes.

I made an interesting discovery yesterday morning. I was picking up a pair of socks in my friends basement when this little milk snake crawled out. He's maybe only 6 inches long which shocked me. He's so little for this time of year (I live in Upstate NY near the Adirondacks). So, instead of letting my friends parents throw him in the snowbank I brought him home. I have him in a 15 gallon long tank with a screen top and a little cave that I had left over from hermit crabs I had awhile ago. I stopped at petsmart and got a bag of green moss and a water bowl and have it in there as well.

What I'm not sure is what to do with him now. Should I keep the temperature cool and hope he goes back into hibernation or warm the room up?

OH, and any suggestions on getting mice pinks? I've read that these snakes eat mice.

I would like to keep him, I've loved snakes for a long time (I used to play with the garter and occasional milk snakes in my back yard as a kid). I've wanted to get one, but theres never really been a good time to get one as there are always other things to use the money on (bills, car, etc).

I've tried to include a picture and hope it goes through. The color is a bit off, he was hard to get a picture of. The spots are a nice color red with a little line of black around it on a cream color. The box he was in was about the size of a dvd case, the pieces of paper about an inch long.

[drugaria]

That's a keeper right there ! I'm not sure it is big enough for pinkies, but you can buy worms from the petstore like Petco and feed him, I think it should be fine if kept at room temperature . It may not eat if it is cold and in hibernation allready but you can try .

[littleindiangirl]

If he will eat for you, try it. I caught one before my BF nearly stepped on it last spring. It was a little noodle, about 6 inches long too! I am so surprised he was hanging out in the winter. We ended up letting him go after 2 days, he did not eat a pinky for us, as they do eat lizards and worms and small frogs when young. You do not want to do that for this guy though!