What Are Milk Snakes?

Milk snakes are non-venomous New World snakes in the kingsnake genus Lampropeltis, best known for their bold red, black and white/yellow banding—a pattern that mimics the venomous coral snake. They pose no danger to humans, eat mostly small mammals and reptiles, and are popular pet snakes because they’re docile and easy to keep. The “milk snake” complex was historically a single species, L. triangulum, but a 2014 phylogenetic revision split it into seven distinct species.

Milk snakes are striking, banded snakes often mistaken for the venomous coral snake. They are completely non-venomous, harmless to humans, and—because of those gorgeous colors and a generally docile temperament—wildly popular as pet snakes.

Milk snakes belong to the kingsnake genus Lampropeltis (Greek for “shiny shield”, an apt name for these glossy-scaled snakes). Until recently, all milk snakes were lumped under a single species, Lampropeltis triangulum, with two dozen subspecies. A 2014 phylogenetic revision (Ruane et al., Systematic Biology) split the complex into seven separate species, which is why field guides differ on whether something like the Honduran milk snake is a subspecies or a full species.

With that in mind, let’s begin with its appearance and how easily it is confused with venomous snakes.

Milk Snake Facts

Across the 24 historical subspecies (now reorganized into several species), milk snake appearance and coloration vary tremendously, but they all share one trait: bold bands running the length of the body. The bands are typically red, black, and white or yellow, with each band edged in black. The arrangement looks random but is actually doing a specific job—Batesian mimicry of the venomous coral snake (the rhyme “red touches black, friend of Jack; red touches yellow, kills a fellow” is a rough mnemonic for telling them apart in the U.S., though it doesn’t hold up outside North America).

Milk snakes are primarily carnivorous and take a wide variety of prey. Their most common food source is mice, rats, voles and other rodents found in agricultural areas. They are also ophiophagous (snake-eating): preying on other snakes, including venomous species like small rattlesnakes and even coral snakes, is a normal part of the diet for the genus Lampropeltis, not just a fallback when other food is scarce. Milk snakes are partially resistant to pit-viper venom, which helps.

Behavior And Diet Of Milk Snakes

Milk snakes are primarily nocturnal and mostly active at dusk and during the night. The only time they venture out during the day is when it’s either wet or cold. When the temperature rises, they tend to hide or seclude themselves under logs, rocks or burrows. In the winter, milk snakes go into a state of brumation in communal dens. Communal dens are usually rock crevices in which several snakes huddle together to share body heat and more effectively regulate their body temperature. Brumation is similar to hibernation, but as ectotherms, brumating snakes track ambient temperature rather than actively suppressing metabolism, and they periodically rouse on warm days to drink water.

Beyond rodents, milk snakes also take lizards (especially skinks, which dominate the diet of juveniles), other snakes, snake eggs and bird eggs — a diet that shifts more strongly toward mammals as the snake matures.

Are Milk Snakes Pets?

When it comes to pets most wouldn’t consider snakes to be the ideal pets to keep in their house. But there are a select number of people who do keep snakes as pets. Most beginner hobbyists prefer non-venomous snakes when they’re starting out, to build confidence handling them, and milk snakes top many lists. The appeal is a mix of their gorgeous colouration and the fact that they’re completely non-venomous and slow to bite.

The two of the most preferred types are the Honduran milk snake and the Eastern milk snake.

Honduran Milk Snake

The Honduran milk snake is native to Honduras, Nicaragua, and northeastern Costa Rica, taking its name from the country where it is most commonly encountered. It inhabits low to medium elevations of sub-tropical rainforest and grassland, usually among the leaf litter on the forest floor.

Being so close to the equator, the climate in their habitat sustains less seasonal variation. These snakes are found from sea level up to roughly 1,500 m (about 5,000 ft) in higher mountainous terrain. They are the most bred kind of milk snake in captivity and are to a certain extent on the easier side of handling.

Eastern Milk Snake

The Eastern milk snake is considered as a pretty snake, of the many subspecies of milk snake, the eastern is a bit tougher to handle for beginners than its counterpart. It has a reputation, perhaps deserved, of being a bit difficult to acclimate. The olive red, bright red, or maroon blotches are edged narrowly in black and contrast nicely with the grey ground colour.

If frightened the milk snake will flatten its head a bit and strike repeatedly. Most adults reach about 60–90 cm (24–36 inches), with large individuals exceeding 130 cm (52 inches). Despite that length, these are slender colubrids: adults usually weigh under 150 g (about 5 oz), not the pound-plus often quoted in pet-care posts. In terms of geographic range, it is found from southeastern Maine and southern Quebec west to southern Minnesota, and south through the Appalachians into Tennessee, northern Georgia and northern Alabama. Unlike the Honduran Milksnake, the Eastern Milksnake has a generalist habitat, this milk snake is found in woodlands, meadows, pastures, at the edges of water courses, amidst talus, under artificial cover, and in many other habitats.

Reproduction And Life Span Of Milk Snakes

Milk snakes usually mate between March and May, depending on the subspecies of the milk snake. The mating usually begins when they come out of their brumation period, but they may occasionally mate in their winter dens. The mating process usually starts with the females first exiting the den and leaving a trail of pheromones once they begin to ovulate. The males pick up on the trail and follow it. Milk snakes usually copulate for hours, which is done to prevent rival males from trying to inseminate the ovulating females.

Milk snakes are oviparous, which means females lay eggs rather than giving live birth. Females usually lay clutches of 2 to 17 eggs (averaging around 10) in early summer, in places like rotting logs, beneath rocks, or buried in soil. The eggs then incubate for roughly 28 to 60 days in the warm, humid microclimate of the nest site before hatching. The hatchlings emerge at about 15–20 cm (6–7 inches) long, with very bright colouration that dulls as they mature. The young ones usually prefer to feast on invertebrates before moving on to birds and mammals. They mature at around 3 to 4 years of age and have been recorded (in captivity) to have a life span of 22 years.

In conclusion, let’s end with a rhyme that helps to differentiate the coral snake from the milk snake; it goes something like this… “If red meets yellow, he’s a deadly fellow, but if red meets black, he’s a friend of Jack!”