Milksnake
(Lampropeltis triangulum)        

This is Milkshake the milk snake.  As you can see, she is stunningly patterned with gorgeous stripes.  Milk snakes are found all across the United States, the Southern part of Canada and also Central America.  In the wild they eat pretty much everything; birds, mammals, lizards and even other snakes.  She is a very long, thin snake and she moves pretty quickly so you will need to have handled Lola or KJ first so you can keep up...

They are definitely not venomous, but they imitate the look of a very venomous snake called a Coral snake(an example of 'Batesian mimicry'). Traditionally you would say this rhyme to make sure you knew which was which..

'red touches black, venom lack
red touches yellow, kill a fellow'

You'd better double check at the beginning of the session!

Fascinating fact: They are called 'milk' snakes because farmers often found them in the cow sheds (eating the mice). This gave rise to the notion that the snakes were there to drink the cows milk...I can't imagine a snake doing that or a cow putting up with it!