Size: 24 to 30 inches
Nature: Gentle
Experience Level: Intermediate
The coastal plains milk snake is a brightly colored and much sought after species. They range from southern New Jersey to northeast North Carolina and true to their name inhabit coastal areas where they frequent escarpments surrounding bodies of water and flood plains.
Coastal plains milks are believed to be a remnant population of the red milk snake (L.t. syspila) from a time when condition allowed eastward expansion of that subspecies. At the northern and southern extremes of their expansion these pioneers likely integrated with eastern milk snakes and scarlet king snakes respectively explaining the geographic variations we see today.
I currently work with coastals that are hypomelanistic. The gene for this form originated from Calvert County MD. While some maintain this as a locality line I found that the stock, as I received it, had severe fecundity issues. Hypo coastals had been around for the better part of 2 decades and I believed poor fecundity the prime reason why they remained uncommon in collections. In response to this problem I outbred my original hypos into stock derived from other localities. After several generations of out crossing, fecundity issues have been resolved and across the collection egg fertility and hatch rate is very near 100%. I can still provide lineage information and locality data on my parent stock however, these remain generic coastals. Locality data I provide, should only be used as a predictor of the possible outcomes from subsequent breedings.
Captive maintenance for this form is no different from that of other colubrids however coastals do benefit when given multiple hides that provide a wide range of temperature and humidity conditions.
Neonates can be difficult to get started but once they begin taking mice they make hardy pets. I only sell neonates after they have been firmly established on frozen/thawed pink mice!
