Milk Snake Care Sheet

The Milk Snake is a species of Kingsnake, there are many different localities as outlined in our other Milk Snake pages like the Honduran, Nelson and Pueblan, these are the species you would find most commonly in the hobby.

Milk snakes require a wooden vivarium as their enclosure. This is because wood is an excellent insulator of heat and so a wooden vivarium will make it easier to control the crucial temperatures required inside the habitat. Other enclosures such as glass terrariums are far too efficient at releasing heat. The wooden vivarium should have good ventilation to allow air flow in and out of the enclosure.The milk snake's vivarium should be at least 860mm (34") in length. There are 2 main reasons for this; firstly milk snakes are not small reptiles and can easily grow to 1200mm in length. They require a proportionate amount of space to live happily. Secondly, the vivarium needs to have a sufficient length to allow for the creation of a temperature gradient. The enclosure needs to be warm at one end, but have enough distance for the temperature to drop at the cool end.

During the day, milk snakes require a warm basking area . This is achieved by using a clear spot bulb at one end of the vivarium. To accomplish the required basking temperature of 85oF- 90oF we use one 40w basking light in a 3ft enclosure.

At night milk snakes require a slight drop in temperature and total darkness. The basking light should be switched off. A night time temperature of 80°F is created by using a heat mat. These radiate heat but produce no light. The heat mat should always be controlled by a good quality thermostat. The thermostat will automatically turn heat mat on at night when the temperature in the vivarium drops. Temperatures should be monitored daily using a thermometer.

Milk snakes do not require UVB to use the calcium in their diet like other reptiles but it is still a beneficial addition to the enclosure. The snake would naturally be exposed to UV from sunlight in the wild and as we are trying to emulate nature in our enclosures we recommend providing some UVB.

A 5% T8 UVB tube, 2-5% T5 uvb tube or more powerful but smaller unit should be sufficient. The UV tube should be mounted to the ceiling at the back of the enclosure to provide a light gradient running parallel to the temperature gradient. There will be times when the snake will want less or no UVB so partial and full hiding spots should be placed all along the width of the enclosure.

Milk snakes should be kept on a dry substrate to avoid humidity building up in the enclosure. Whilst any loose substrate has the potential to be accidentally swallowed, we have found this to not be a problem with coarse beech woodchips and that is what we keep our milk snakes on. It is also very easy to clean.

Whilst milk snakes are not an arboreal snakes, they do like to climb on top of things to survey their surroundings. The vivarium should be decorated with various pieces of wood to enable them to do this.

The milk snake vivarium can be decorated with artificial plants for a more natural look. A hiding spot at each end of the enclosure will allow the snake to move freely and thermoregulate without feeling insecure.

As hatchlings, milk snakes should be fed weekly on defrosted pinky mice, as the snake grows the food size should be increased until the snake is taking large mice or even jumbos. Adult milk snakes can be fed once every two weeks as they can become overweight if fed weekly.

A water bowl large enough for the snake to get in to should be provided on the cool end of the enclosure.

If you keep a male and female together, they may breed. You do not need to do anything to encourage this, providing they are healthy and the conditions are good, it will happen naturally. You need to consider whether you want this to happen. What will you do with the babies if you incubate the eggs?

A gravid female should have access to a nesting box to lay her eggs. The box should be large enough that she can fully turn-around inside it. We use moss to keep the box moist and humid.

The eggs should be incubated in an incubator at 84oF. We incubate our eggs in sealed boxes on a moisture rich substrate (such as Hatchrite) to trap the humidity around the eggs. After approximately 60 days the eggs will start to hatch, the first babies to emerge will encourage the rest of the eggs to hatch.

Milk snakes, as with most pets, require a clean environment to thrive. We recommend a spot clean as often as possible (every day) and a full clean every 4 weeks or so. If you are keeping the snake in a bio-active enclosure you can spot clean and monitor the enclosure. It may still be a good item to change out the bedding a few times per year.

When cleaning the enclosure you should remove your animal, all decorations and all of the bedding. Once the enclosure is clear you can spray it all over with a reptile friendly disinfectant. These usually work very quickly and only need to be left for around 30 seconds, instructions can normally be found on the disinfectants packaging. Once the disinfectant has done its work it can be wiped away from the surfaces with a paper towel. In some cases you might want to repeat this process a second time to ensure that the enclosure is thoroughly cleaned.

Your decorations can be cleaned in a similar method, simply spray them down with the disinfectant and rinse thoroughly with water before drying them off and putting them back into the enclosure. We recommend this process is done during the day time to make sure that the snake will be going back to a warm vivarium for at least an hour before the basking lamps are turned off for the night.