New Snake Mom

[TRD]

Milksnakes tend to be a bit shy and may flea when you try and take them out and/or are in your hands but generally mellow down after 30-60 seconds in that case. Always try and cool them down when they go into escape mode (for whatever reason) before putting them back... otherwise you make the snake believe that when he does that, he will be put back into his home and you unintentionally program him into such behavior. The snake will always prefer his home over your hands and merely tolerate handling based on the trust relationship you build up with it.

Anyways, your snake looks to be in great health. In my opinion a milksnake tends to require a little higher humidity than a kingsnake (but still dry) especially during shedding. So a spot in the enclosure kept a bit more moist that the snake can use whenever it feels like, isn't a bad idea (f.e. humid hidebox). Never spray down the entire enclosure to raise humidity during a shed, some caresheets state this, it's very bad for the snake to be kept on wet substrate with no option to escape from it. Also feeding it wet mice (as in thawed in water without a bag) helps to ensure the snake gets sufficient water into his system to shed well.

Depending on the size of the fuzzies you can get, he can move up to it. You can also determine the proper amount of food for it by weighing the snake and the pinkies... if 2 pinkies weigh as much as 10-15% of the weight of the snake (properly frozen pinkies weight as much frozen as thawed), the snake should still be put on pinkies. If you need to add a 3rd pinkie there it is generally time to move on to the next size. Feed every 5 days with 0-1 year old snakes, then 5-7 days in the 2nd year, 7-10 days in the 3rd year, 10-14 days in the 4th year. The reason it is a range of days is because each snake has a different metabolism which depends on the individual somewhat, and the temperature it prefers. You will be able to tell eventually when your snake is hungry because it starts to actively hunt for food. That doesn't mean you should run out and get him food right away, but it does tell you that when that happens after 5 days when your schedule is 7-10 days, likely you should feed on every 7 days.