What subspecies of milk snake is this?

So this is my milk snake Draco, I am unsure of his age but I got him less than a year ago when he was about a foot long. I'm really curious as to what kind he is, I've done some research but I don't feel comfortable trusting the internet. He drinks a lot of water and burrows in his bedding, if that could say anything to his natural habitat. Two of the pictures I included do show his underside- however helpful that may be. Thank you!!

Looks like a nelsons. However it's almost impossible to know for sure without lineage info from the breeder

Looks to be a standard Sinaloan/Nelson's cross.

Definitely not a cross as one user stated. Looks to be a Nelson's milk snake, as the initial reply said.

Nope. Nelson's have an open neck ring. Sinaloans have a closed neck ring. It's ok though, people have been mixing the two subspecies for 20 years. Some now look more like either parent subspecies.

Alright, thanks. I have never heard of neck ring patterns being used to distinguish snakes, so I suppose I learned something.

Well, distinguish milk and king snakes at least.

It's just one of a few ways to identify specimens found in the wild, but this is mostly academic nowadays since there is no longer any pure lines of nelsoni in the hobby and three (albeit one is somewhat questionable) lines of sinaloae in the hobby.

Interesting to know.

Originally Posted by brianm616

Nope. Nelson's have an open neck ring. Sinaloans have a closed neck ring. It's ok though, people have been mixing the two subspecies for 20 years. Some now look more like either parent subspecies.

Was told Cosala milks sometimes will have an open neck ring.