Juvenile color and patterning may remain visible until the Black Milk Snake is nearing adulthood.

Lampropeltis triangulum gaigeae is an Interesting Milk Snake. Brightly tricolored at hatching, not only does this subspecies undergo rather remarkable ontogenetic changes, but this Central American (Costa Rica and Panama) subspecies is also the longest and probably the heftiest of the milk snakes, attaining the rather remarkable length of 7 feet when adult!

Hatchlings are 10-12 inches long, a notable length for any member of this group, and they are strongly tricolored and can easily consume pinkies. By the time a hatchling has undergone 2 or 3 sheds, a suffusion of melanism will be seen dulling the hatchling brilliance somewhat and by the time the snake is a subadult there will be no doubt about its parentage. It has been many years since I last kept tricolors of any subspecies, but I still recall the amazement felt when I compared hatchling photos with those taken as growth ensued. Try this beauty yourself. I think you’ll be very pleasantly surprised. And strangely, in these days of upwardly spiraling hobbyist costs, I think that the price of Black Milk Snake hatchlings remains comparatively affordable.

Kingsnakes (this is a South Florida or Brook's phase) may hunt their prey in surface or sub-surface locales.
Interestingly the different groupings of rodent-eating snakes tend to orient themselves a bit differently. For example the nonvenomous rat snakes, prominent members of the serpentine rodent patrol, tend to be more ubiquitous in their hunting techniques than, let’s say, the kingsnakes, milk snakes, or pit vipers. The former, the rat snakes seek prey (rats, mice, and other unwanted furry visitors) on the ground, in barns and other out-structures, in trees, and under surface debris. Even long grasses and shrub cuttings may suffice as a harbor for rodents and these predators.

The venomous pit vipers, rattlers and moccasins, tend to be ambush rather than active predators. To heighten chances for success, these, especially the rattlers, often seek out rodent trails and position themselves next to a fallen tree or other such visual barrier in hopes of a careless rat or squirrel coming along. Small rattler species may be more active. Cottonmouths often seek out road-killed carrion and pry it from the pavement. Copperheads overindulge on cicadas and other insects as well as frogs, lizards, nestling birds and rodents.

Kingsnakes, milk snakes, and members of the bull/pine/gopher snakes clan are often active ground-surface predators that follow trails of mice, voles and other prey through grassy/weedy tunnels and may follow prey trails into subterranean burrows. In fact the pine/gopher/bullsnakes are dedicated hunters of gophers and voles within the burrows. Kingsnakes and milk snakes are adept at following rodents or herps but are not as specialized at burrow-hunting as the gopher snake group.

Snakes seek prey wherever the trails lead them. Besides their individually preferred hunting sites almost all snakes—yes even kings and pit vipers, are capable of ascending trees. We humans, or Mother Nature, will either purposely or accidentally create the habitats. Our friends, the snakes and their prey often closely follow.

The Carolina Pygmy Rattler of the Sandhills can vary widely in ground color but are usually light with well defined dorsal blotches.
The Variably Colored Carolina Pygmy Rattlesnake, Sistrurus m. miliarius is the most northeasterly, most variable in color, and marginally the smallest of the 3 subspecies of Pygmy Rattlesnakes. It ranges southward from the Albemarle Peninsula of North Carolina to South Carolina, Central Georgia, and westward to Northern Alabama. At the southern extremes of its range it intergrades with the Dusky subspecies in the east and with the Western subspecies in the west. Adult size is a stocky 15 to 20 inches. It seems as if the record length is 25 inches.

It is in color that this little buzztail varies most. Two of the most often mentioned color phases are the “sandhill” phase and the “red” phase. The latter seems restricted to neGA and eNC while the lavender sandhills phase, restricted to the NC sandhills, is aptly named.

Besides the lavender and red ground colors already mentioned, this little snake may vary from gray to brownish. It lacks the dark stippling of the dusky phase but has clearly defined light edged dark dorsal saddles as well as lateral smaller lateral blotches. In areas of intergradation stippling is heavier and the patterns are less clearcut.

Between 2 and 9 young are produced in each clutch. Neonates measure a rather slender 6 inches in total length.

The tail is usually dark on adults but yellowish on neonates.