I actually live in Ontario, Canada. Apparently black rats do range into southern Ontario and thus are protected. But from all my reading in past posts about leucistic black rats and leucistic Texas rats, I do suspect i have a Texas Rat. breeding it to a female texas rat snake certainly will reveal if the offspring come out looking like typical texas rat snakes or more like Texan/black rat crosses. However, unless I buy an adult female, it will be a few years before I can prove it out.



In any case, even if my place is raided and my animals inspected, I don't think anybody could be sure my leucistic rat snake is a black rat if I tell them it's Texan, at least not without genetical testing. As it is not a dangerous snake, I highly doubt they will waste their time. It obviously isn't a wild caught animal.



Thanks all for your help and insight. Now I am going to go double check the care requirements for Texan Rat snakes to see if there is any difference between BLack rat and Texan rat care.

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