FaunaClassifieds - View Single Post - Ruthvens King or Mexican Milk?
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Old 02-10-2021, 04:34 PM   #3
WebSlave
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.