Intergrades? Don’t do it. Why? Except for a few designer snakes, no one wants them. You will end up giving them away to people who are not serious hobbyists. These people have a tendency to keep them for a while, and then set them loose causing gene pollution.

There is also debate going on as to how related some of the subspecies are. Burbrink would place two Black Rat Snakes found indifferent geographical areas as separate species and would eliminate all subspecies. I have placed the references at the bottom. They can be found on the WWW in PDF format if you do a search for them.

What I suggest that you do is to raise snakes native to your area. That way, if you can’t sell them, you can set them loose without polluting the local gene pool. I personally never understand why people feel the need to change what Nature has cooked up. Whether they are Blacks, Yellows, Grays or Texans, they are all beautiful creatures to behold. Why mess with a good thing?

One more note. Greenish Rat Snakes are just one of the natural shades of Yellow Rat Sankes. They are found that way in the nothern part of their range, and they are not intergrades with Blacks. Intergrades between Blacks and Yellows don't develope stripes.


Burbrink, F. T., R. Lawson, and J. B. Slowinski. 2000. Mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of the North American rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta): a critique of the subspecies concept. Evolution 54: 2107-2114.

Burbrink, F. T. 2001. Systematics of the Eastern Ratsnake Complex (Elaphe obsoleta). Herpetological Monographs 15: 1-53.

Utiger, U., N. Helfenberger, B. Schatti, C. Schmidt, M. Ruf, and V. Ziswiler. 2002. Molecular Systematics and Phylogeny of Old and New World Ratsnakes, Elaphe AUCT., and related genera (Reptilia, Squamata, Colubridae). Russian J. Herpetol. 9(2): 105-124.

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