Awesome find!,....



Well, as Terry already mentioned, it's definitely not a true leucistic snake, even though it displays black pupils and is extremely pale. As mentioned, truly leucistic snakes are COMPLETELY patternless, white to beige with absolutely no other visible body pigmentation, yet have normally-pigmented black pupils. it doesn't seem to display ANY hints of tiny flecks of dark pigment (melanin) either like the so-called 'calico' Black ratsnakes do. I'd bet that your snake will later develop more yellowish pigmentation (xanthin), and even possibly a bit of pinkish tone as well as it matures more. Do you know if this juvenile was actually captured in pure 'spiloides' range? If not, it could easily be a natural intergrade of the other NA rat subspecies. The county were it was captured will likely determine its subspecific origin. it will be a bit easier to determine what is going on genetically as it matures more though. VERY COOL snake regardless!



BtW, this is a pic of a hatchling 'calico' BLACK ratsnake which is very similar to the gray rat. Both ratsnake ssp. look virtually identical as neonates anyway until they mature more.

-----
irony - "that one person's trash (hybrid snakes) could ever be another person's treasure"..........

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]