Diet
Young milk snakes typically eat slugs, insects, crickets, and earthworms. Adult diet frequently includes lizards (especially skinks), and small mammals. They are also known to eat birds and their eggs, frogs, fish, and other snakes.
Milk snakes are much more opportunistic eaters than the fox snake or corn snake. They have been known to consume a variety of animals including rodents, eggs, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates. Nevertheless the diet of an adult milk snake still primarily consists of rodents. They are nocturnal eaters and are often found during the day in old barns and under wood.
An early myth about milk snakes is that they suck cow udders to get the milk. The myth is entirely false, and is discredited by the fact that the milk snake does not have the physical capabilities to suck milk out of a cow. Milk snakes are, however, frequently found in and around barns, making use of their cool and dark environments, and for the easily accessed populations of rodents to feed on. This proximity to barns, and therefore cows, probably gave rise to the myth.
Read more about this topic: Milk Snake
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