I'll try to be objective here and give the guy the benefit of the doubt.



Having seen the video, my initial reaction is that this is without a doubt an Eastern. However, the guy that has it also claimed to have thought it was an Eastern until he thoroughly examined the snake: "His rostral is sharply upturned. He has 26 dorsal scales at mid body and 48 subcaudals. all outside the range of the eastern and inside the that of the western scale count. It all matches even face scale counts. look up the scientific definitions. His scale counts fit him in with the westerns. I thought for sure it was going to be a eastern when I caught him but when I got a close look I wasn't so sure so I counted."



Obviously the guy is not an idiot and took the time to compare scale counts and what-not to try and ascertain exactly what this is. Unfortunately, I believe body scale counts to more of a guideline than a hard rule. Head scales seem to be more specific however. What if the scale counts on this animal were clearly indicative of a Western and not anywhere near what an Eastern should be? That, in my opinion, might suggest that this animal might be a type of intergrade/hybrid then rather than a full blown Western.



While the initial impression might be that this is an Eastern, I won't rule out that this might be something entirely different given the information supplied by the owner. However, I would definitely think twice though about adding an unknown genetic animal like into my breeding plans however if there were a possibility of it being a hybrid.
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Troy Rexroth

Rextiles

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