Rusty Black Ratsnakes are a natural variant which occurs in the wild, albeit rarely. Rusty Black Ratsnakes turned out to be heterozygous for leucism, it's rusty coloration seems to be the codominant expression of the leucistic gene in heterozygous animals.



If its a codominant trait then why is it rare in the wild? I say bull butter!!



As for Leucistic rat snakes, I suggest that anyone interested should consult the following publication:

Bechtel, H.B., and E. Bechtel. 1985. Genetics of color mutations in the snake, Elaphe obsoleta. Journal of Heredity. 76:7-11.



On page 10 of the above mentioned article, you will find that a Texas rat snake (het leucistic) was bred to an amelanistic black rat snake in 1980. Nine hatchlings were produced. Then in 1981, a Texas rat snake (het leucistic) was bred to a black rat (double het tyrosinase positive and tyrosinase negative albino) and also produced nine hatchlings. My point? The first leucistic Texas rat snakes (4) produced in captivity were hatched in 1981. Simultaneously the Leucistic gene was being crossed into black rats. Crossing leucistic Texas rats into black rats is not something new, nor is it something that has never been done. I know alot of you are relatively new to these forums, but there might be a few of you out there that remember all the black rat X Texas rat ads that used to run in the classifieds, circa 1998 or so. Now you never see those ads. Did all those crosses just implode?? LOL.



I think my stance on leucistic black rat snakes should be obvious. If not check the archives.



Later,

dg

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