Notices |
Hello!
Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.
Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....
Please note that the information requested during registration will be used to determine your legitimacy as a participant of this site. As such, any information you provide that is determined to be false, inaccurate, misleading, or highly suspicious will result in your registration being rejected. This is designed to try to discourage as much as possible those spammers and scammers that tend to plague sites of this nature, to the detriment of all the legitimate members trying to enjoy the features this site provides for them.
Of particular importance is the REQUIREMENT that you provide your REAL full name upon registering. Sorry, but this is not like other sites where anonymity is more the rule.
Also your TRUE location is important. If the location you enter in your profile field does not match the location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected. As such, I strongly urge registrants to avoid using a VPN service to register, as they are often used by spammers and scammers, and as such will be blocked when discovered when auditing new registrations.
Sorry about all these hoops to jump through, but I am quite serious about blocking spammers and scammers at the gate on this site and am doing the very best that I can to that effect. Trust me, I would rather be doing more interesting things with my time, and wouldn't be making this effort if I didn't think it was worthwhile.
|
|
|
02-10-2021, 12:28 PM
|
#1
|
|
Ruthvens King or Mexican Milk?
I purchased this beautiful snake recently (first two photos). Sold to me as a Ruthvens King Snake. Then I saw this video from Snake Discovery, claiming that this snake (last photo) was a Mexican Milk Snake. They look almost exactly alike to me. My research shows a lot of variability in the appearance of each. Also, Their ranges overlap and I understand that they may hybridize, even in the wild. So, it may be very difficult to know which is which. So what is this snake? Ruthvens King Snake or Mexican Milk Snake? I was hoping to learn more about my new pet. Thank you.
|
|
|
02-10-2021, 04:34 PM
|
#3
|
|
Ruthvens has been bred into so many other species over the decades that unless it is a verified locality wild caught, I would highly doubt it's "purity". Even looking at the pics you provided, based on the shape and pattern of the head, it looks to me that there might be some "mexicana" in it's heritage.
Matter of fact, I heard rumors a LONG time ago that the people doing a lot of the major hybridization in kings and milks would hatch out the babies and then segregate them by appearance, labeling them as whatever they appeared to be closest visually.
But you will probably never know. Any intentions of selling the animal and selling the offspring? If not, do you like the snake? For a pet, that is all that really matters. Of course, you would like to know, but unless you did a lot of digging to find the source of the animal concerning who produced it and could provide it's ancestry, I doubt you will have much success identifying it just by comparing photos.
|
|
|
02-10-2021, 04:55 PM
|
#4
|
|
By ventral scale count alone, she would be a Ruthvens King. She definitely has more than 56 scales. Much closer to 200. That is easy enough to see. Still not sure though. The banding on my snake is much wider than in the picture of the Ruthvens on the page you attached. The band width is more in line with the photo of the milk snake. I have also read that there is sometime a subtle lime green edging on the Ruthvens kings. My snake has no green edging. Thanks for your help.
|
|
|
02-10-2021, 05:02 PM
|
#5
|
|
She is just a pet, and I have no intention of breeding her. I am very happy with her attitude and her beauty. I was just wondering. I was told from the seller that she was a Ruthvens. The seller being a retail outlet, not a breeder. I have no reason to doubt the word of the seller. I just began to wonder when I saw a picture of one that looks exactly like mine that was called a Mexican Milk Snake.
|
|
|
02-10-2021, 05:05 PM
|
#6
|
|
I agree with Rich, and I think info like this is really interesting and relevant. Old-timers should write all this stuff down and publish a book, since all of this is going to be lost once everyone migrates to Facebook and info disappears whenever the wind changes.
Nonetheless, I sort of take 'is my animal X' questions to be 'is my animal what the hobby calls X' rather than as some genetically pure animal suitable to be a type specimen.
|
|
|
02-10-2021, 06:44 PM
|
#7
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Socratic Monologue
Old-timers should write all this stuff down and publish a book, since all of this is going to be lost once everyone migrates to Facebook and info disappears whenever the wind changes.
|
My question being, aside from old-timers, who would actually read the book, when they can simply google and then argue their opinions? Lol.
|
|
|
02-10-2021, 08:37 PM
|
#8
|
|
Add-on question: What is the correct nomenclature, King Snake and Milk Snake, or Kingsnake and Milksnake?
|
|
|
02-10-2021, 11:28 PM
|
#9
|
|
Most commonly used by herp folks is "kingsnake" and "milk snake", though I don't know why the difference.
|
|
|
02-11-2021, 03:39 PM
|
#10
|
|
Possibly because autocorrect will change milk snake to milk shake if the words are not separated.
|
|
|
Join
now to reply to this thread or open new ones
for your questions & comments! FaunaClassifieds.com
is the largest online community about Reptile
& Amphibians, Snakes, Lizards and number one
classifieds service with thousands of ads to look
for. Registration is open to everyone and FREE.
Click Here to Register!
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:05 AM.
|
|