From my retired SerpenCo.com website.
Milk Snake Phase Corn Snake
The name 'Milk Snake Phase' was applied to a corn snake that I hatched out in 1984 when I lived in Maryland. This particular snake had very clean, uniform blotching and a nice silver gray background and people whom saw it commented on the fact that it greatly resembled a Coastal Plain Milk Snake. Somehow this name stuck and next thing I knew people were asking for offspring from the 'Milk Snake Phase' corn. There appear to be two different color lines running in my blood lines. One tends to be extremely contrasty with brilliant red blotches on a silver gray background whereas the other end of the spectrum is a very low contrast animal with little or no black borders around the blotches and an almost brownish look to it. I have sometimes referred to these as my 'Copperhead Corns', but have never marketed them as such.
This cultivar originally camed from some Miami Phase stock I've been working with since the late 70s. I guess you could consider these as 'top of the line' Miami Phase, since that's what they really are. I have never really liked this name, but the name is one that has apparently stuck. My intention is to migrate the look of the Milk Snake Phase corn to one of a banded corn, through judicious use of selective breeding, which would more closely resemble a true Coastal Plain milk snake. One of the problems I am encountering is that my selective breeding results of the Miami Phase are beginning to look more and more like early examples of the Milk Snake Phase Corns. I guess that's because I really like the deep contrasty colors and look for that in the best Miami Phase corns. So don't be surprised if there is a blurring of the line between the Miami Phase and the Milk Snake Phase corns and sometimes only a judement call on my part will make the difference on what label I apply to them. Generally speaking, the ones that are labeled as Milk Snake Phase corns will be the cream of the crop, but it is quite possible for an exceptional Miami Phase and a so-so Milk Snake Phase to look very similar.
One of the means I am using to enhance the size of the blotches of the Milk Snake Phase is by breeding the Milk Snake Phase line into the Motley genetic stock. This will have a two-fold purpose. One is to produce Milk Snake Phase corns with saddles and bands, rather than the more typical blotches. Second, I would like to produce Motleys that are much more contrasty than what is typical in that line. Imagine, if you will, a Miami Phase Motley that would be red on silver gray, yet with the Motley pattern. I'm not quite there yet, but some of the results I've gotten have been encouraging. I may be selling off some of the culls of this project as 'Milk Snake x Motleys'.
The top of the line examples from these bloodlines always attract a lot of attention at the shows when put on display, and are fast sellers when I have them to offer for sale.