Milk Snake Care Sheet (A Beginner’s Guide to Caring for Milk Snake)

In this post I am going to show you my version of how to care for milk snakes. There are in my opinion multiple successful ways to raise a snake or any animal for that matter. This is just my way; other people might do it differently but as long as the snakes have all their needs met then it’s a good way.

General Information

Milk snake’s Latin name is lampropeltis Triangulum and they’re actually a species of king snake. There are a few different subspecies of milk snake that are very commonly kept in captivity including the Honduran, pueblan, Sinaloan, Mexican and Nelsons.

The care for all the subspecies of milk snake is relatively the same but keep in mind that subspecies of milk snake can range all the way from southern Canada to Central America. So, you may need to alter the husbandry just a little bit depending on subspecies.

The name milk snake actually comes from a myth that milk snakes would sneak into farmers barns at night and latch on to the cows udders and drink their milk. But obviously this has never been confirmed.

Milk Snake Size

Their size generally ranges from two to six feet with the Honduran milk snake growing slightly larger than the other subspecies.

Milk Snake Lifespan

They can live anywhere from 12 to 20 years in captivity so this is a big commitment with a long-life span.

Milk snakes come in a wide variety of colors and the reason they are banded the way they are is because they actually use mimicry to avoid predation. They closely mimic the coral snake a highly venomous species of a lapid.

They are ectothermic meaning that they have to get their heat from the sun in the wild. and they are poiki