differences in kings and milks

[dorado29]

What are the main differences between kings and milks? are there any temperamental differences because thats what i'm mainly concerned with.. which one would generally be better to handle?

[Shelby]

They're quite closely related.. I'm unsure of the morphological differences that separate them, but temperament wise, it really depends on the individual snake, and species.

I've personally found kings to be more aggressive. I have 4 cali kings.. only one I pick up without gloves. I also have a speckled king who would just love to eat my fingers. By far my most docile king is my greyband. I love that snake.

As for milks.. I have three hondurans. None have bitten recently.. the only one who ever did is my baby het hypo. She doesn't do it anymore.. she's calmed a bit with age. All three like to wiggle around a lot though.

My albino nelson's milk is a very docile little fella. Never bit.

That probably just confused you more than anything.. oh well.

[dorado29]

nah that helped a lot thanks... i was looking at a greyband but going by the odds i should probably get a milk. i like this guy right here http://www.reptiledepot.com/snakes.html about the same as the greyband. (its the cb amel striped motely clowns about 3/4 of the way down)

[Shelby]

A corn? Yeah they're usually nice snakes.. though I have a real killer.

[dorado29]

woah woops sorry meant to say milksnake... for some reason i thought the snake i was looking at was a milk haha i need to start paying attention when i read

[Shelby]

Which milk were you thinking of getting?

[fergie]

There is little to no difference between Kings and Milks, the only thing that differs is the name. The milksnake species could just as well have been called "red kingsnake" or anything else. The two species are within the same genus along with the other half dozen species, wich means that they are all very closely related. The taxonomics of the Lampropeltis genus is still undergoing changes. For example, the Queretaro king (L. ruthveni) was considered a milksnake subspecies just a few decades ago and the getula complex will probably soon be a group of 9 or 10 subspecies instead of the 7 as of today. The zonata group will also soon become either 8 subspecies or maybe one of them will be given full species status.

[dorado29]

i was thinking of getting a mexican black from petco (yeah i know petco....) but my mom is kind of sketched out by the whole shipping snakes thing despite explaining it to her so i might just go with a king or milk from a pet store because i think that they have a 30 day return kind of deal going