pueblan milk snake

[Villegas420]

I just recently required my milk snake on the 7th, I've fed him/her twice already and have the temps at 82 degrees on one side and cooler on the other. Two days ago I bought a stick for him to climb if he felt like it. Well today he was more active and climb in the little space between the tank and screen and just slithered around the tank then got down and started trying to get back up there. Do you think he/she is stressed or is it just curiosity trying to find weak points?

[TRD]

Believe it or not, snakes do like an environment with some enrichment. I can tell from my own experience that supplying a lot of clutter, climbing space, possible hides, etc leads to much more active snakes. all my kingsnakes are active during the day... either basking, nosing around, moving from place to place to chill.. it isn't until sunset and the first 2-3 hours of the night that they are on a constant move (hunting).

So, provide a lot of stuff in there for the snake to explore, re-arrange it sometimes if you can, provide something new at times, he'll be more active if you do to check it out.

[cxbos]

My feelings are mixed on this and there are varying opinions. I think like TRD implied, kings/milks are more active and like to do stuff if given the opportunity. They're also hunters and not ambush predators like BP's or something so they spend time out trying to find food. Stress can always cause weird behavior so just make sure your husbandry is pretty good - I never find colubrids like this to be super high maintenance like those prissy pythons.

[Psyrocke]

I don't own a milk, but my king likes to explore at night. I'll move his water dish around when he's sleeping. But he likes to burrow under and create tunnels in his substrate also.

[daisymaisy]

I recently moved my pueblan milk to a bioactive enclosure with things to climb and burrow in, and he has been very busy checking things out. So I think they do like to explore.