Greetings & First Time Snake Owner

[FeelNGroovy]

Hello all,
Long time lurker, first time poster. I've kept many species of lizards and amphibians in my time, and just recently picked up my first snake to add to my small, current collection. I usually purchase my reptiles from the NARBC shows that pass through twice a year, but I was in my local Petsmart recently and fell in love with what they had labeled as an albino Sinaloan Milk Snake. A bit of a spontaneous Christmas present to myself and my twin 10 year old boys.

I'm a research freak and as such have read up quite a bit on the species. I don't necessarily have any questions currently, but I'm sure that will change soon. I would like for those of you experienced with the species to take a look at the attached pics and let me know if you all agree that this is in fact a Sinaloan Milk. Not a big deal, I would just like to know for certain. Also, I guess I do have another question, how do I go about sexing this beautiful being to determine M or F? Thanks very much.

[Minkness]

Congrats on ths new edition and wlcome to the forum! All I can tell you is that it's an albino milk of some sort. Hopefully someone more knowledgable will chime in shortly. =)

[FeelNGroovy]

Thanks Minkness. We are loving him/her so far. Had our first feeding last night and it went very well. This sweet thing took the thawed pinky right from the tweezers!

[Bandit]

Welcome to the forums and congrats on moving into the world of snakes! Your snake definitely looks like a Sinaloan to me.

As for sexing, you'd have to probe it. I know some people prefer to wait until they are a bit older to sex, but some people do it when they are young. If you've never done it, don't try it as you can harm your snake. One option would be to take it to the vet to find out. However, a cheaper option may be to find a local reptile group and ask someone (maybe a breeder) if they would be willing to meet up and sex it. It's really up to you!

[chairman]

Many colubrids can be sexed using post-vent scale counts. I don't recall the exact numbers but females have short tales and around 100 scales on the underside of their tails. Males should come closer to 140 or so. Not as definitive as probing but if you're not breeding and you just want a reasonable guess...

[FeelNGroovy]

Thanks for the feedback all, appreciated.

[Andy_G]

To my knowledge, all albino sinaloan milksnakes originated from a cross between an albino nelson's milk snake and a sinaloan milksnake quite a long time ago, and through time breeders have increased the percentage of the sinaloan blood in the morph for quite some time. Nice pick up!

Also, if you have any friends that can pop baby snakes in order to sex them, that one is definitely not too old to do so. Much easier than probing at that size, but it must be done correctly to proevent the possibility of injury.