The Honduran milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis) is a medium-bodied snake native to the leaf litter of rain forests in Honduras, Nicaragua, and northeastern Costa Rica. It features distinctive black and red bands. Females are typically larger than males, with both sexes averaging 5 to 6 feet in length, though some individuals can reach up to 8 feet.
Commonly referred to as “hondos,” these snakes reach sexual maturity as early as 3 years old and can remain productive for up to 15 years. Males have longer, thicker tails, making visual sexing straightforward. For breeding, females should be at least 3 feet long, but it’s preferable for them to exceed 3 1/3 feet. Ideal Conditions Adults are housed in enclosures measuring 48 inches long by 12 inches wide by 16 inches tall. Heat tape provides a hotspot of 84 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit, while the cool end maintains mid to low 70s. Night temperatures can drop into the 60s, but a heat gradient is available 24/7 except during brumation. A water bowl large enough for soaking is always provided in the cool end. Hondos enjoy burrowing and require a suitable substrate like pine or aspen. Dark, tight hides are essential for security; a humid hide with damp sphagnum moss is placed on the cool end, and a dry hide on the warm end. These hides can range from simple plastic shoeboxes with holes to elaborate ceramic caves, typically measuring about 6 inches long by 9 inches wide by 2 inches tall. Feeding Compared to North American milk snakes, hondos are big eaters and readily accept thawed frozen rodents. Adults are fed every eight to 10 days, while growing hatchlings are fed every four to six days. A 12-inch-long baby receives one pinky mouse, but a 15-inch-long baby gets three pinkies or one hopper. Adults consume up to six adult mice per feeding, with occasional offerings of weanling to small rats, quail, or chicks. Honduran Milksnake Brumation Brumation begins on November 1 by reducing light from 12 to 8 hours daily using ambient room light only. Last meals are given mid-November. By early December, heat tapes are turned off, and light is reduced to four hours per day. By mid-December, the room is kept dark 24 hours a day. Room temperatures range from 45 to 70 degrees, averaging 60 degrees. The absence of light and external heat is crucial during brumation. Heat tapes and eight hours of light are restored by early February. Given their beauty, ease of care, and availability, it’s no surprise that more people are enjoying the marvelous Honduran milk snake.Meals resume within the first week. By the end of February lights are back to a 12-hour cycle.
Honduran Milksnake Feed to Breed Male and female Honduran milk snakes are ravenous coming out of brumation. Fed heavily, females ovulate and shed by mid-March to early April. However, sometimes a female doesn’t ovulate until her second shed around June or July. Ovulation is obvious because the last two-thirds of a female’s body swells with ova. Around the same time, males usually stop feeding and are ready to mate. Breeding usually occurs immediately upon introductions. Females not ready buck advancing males with tail slapping. Females that have ovulated and are ready stretch out, accept male advances and lift their tails in what is called “cloacal gaping.” After I’ve witnessed several copulations, I remove males after a week and feed females heavily. Honduran Milksnake Egg Incubation Eggs are laid within four to six weeks of copulation. I place a 20-quart plastic egg-laying box, which measures about 12 inches long by 8 inches wide by 6 inches tall, around the enclosure’s midpoint and use sphagnum moss inside. This acidic medium inhibits mold while retaining moisture. Gravid females usually stay in these boxes and only come out to eat, drink and defecate. To breed hondos, I simulate seasonal change by cooling them. Brumation starts in November and lasts about 60 days. Potential breeders are fed heavily in the spring and fall with a meal every four to five days. Hondos have large, tubular eggs white to cream in color and firm to the touch. Infertile eggs are small, yellow and waxy looking. Females have a pre-lay shed about 10 days before depositing eggs. If the female crawls in and out of her egg-laying box and moves around the enclosure after this pre-lay shed, then something is wrong. Check temperatures to ensure they are not above the high 70s, and make sure the moss isn’t too wet or soggy; it should be damp and fluffy. Check daily for eggs after the pre-lay shed, but remember that egg laying is physically taxing for the snakes, so keep direct contact to a minimum. Honduran milksnakes are commonly bred in captivity. Typically females lay three to 24 eggs at one time, and eggs laid before or after the initial event are usually infertile. Hondos have large, tubular eggs white to cream in color and firm to the touch. Infertile eggs are small, yellow and waxy looking. Often eggs are stuck together in one mass when laid — do not separate them! Orientation is important. A snake embryo adheres to the egg’s wall; changing orientation can cause the embryo to dislodge, resulting in its death. Incubating eggs requires high humidity and stable temperatures. I use plastic shoeboxes and completely cover eggs with damp vermiculite or perlite. These boxes are placed on the top shelf of my bathroom closet, and the temperature is kept at 80 degrees. Avoid temperatures of 85 degrees and higher; they result in spinal kinks and deformities.Hatching occurs in 65 to 75 days.
Bloated with yolk when they emerge, usually within 48 hours of pipping, hatchlings won’t eat for a month or so. For a first meal, most take thawed frozen pinky mice. Problem eaters are rare and can usually be traced to a husbandry issue. I keep hatchlings in 10-gallon aquariums with the same kind of setup as the adults. Although I have never seen cannibalistic behavior, keep a close eye on babies housed together, and feed them separately. Pleasant Recessions Many recessive morph traits have been refined in the hobby for Honduran milk snakes. Some double homozygous morphs, which exhibit two recessive traits at the same time, are fairly common now. Snows (double homozygous albino and anerythristic) and ghosts (double homozygous hypomelanistic and anerythristic) are examples. Many breeders sell offspring that carry recessive traits but don’t physically display them at a fraction of the cost they sell the visual morphs, so buying and then breeding these snakes is an affordable way to attain the morph you’re after. Add pattern aberrancies, such as striping, splotching and vanishing patterns, to recessive morph traits, and the sky is the limit on what will be produced. Photo by Thomas Davis Many recessive morph traits have been refined in the hobby for Honduran milk snakes.