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This is a wild caught black rat snake. I'm trying to figure exactly what it might be so that I can properly label it for an educational display.

Considering the location it was found, the amount of old scarring/injuries on it (not counting the recent injuries), it is not suspected to be an escaped/released pet, but a true wild born. It is about 3 feet long and based on size approximately 3-4 years old and appears to be a male.

I've always heard that albinos have pink eyes and retain noticeable patterns and a leucistic has dark/blue eyes and no pattern. This snake looks like a faded out kind of albino (i know the reds/orange blotches can vary in intensity with individual snakes). However, this snake also has dark eyes. I'm hoping someone is more familiar with known wild morphs that help pinpoint what might be going on with this snake.

It's not a bright/clean white (or a solid white) one would see in a leucistic. It's a pearl-like color where you can't really pinpoint a specific color as it's a blend of pinks, whites, lavender/blue, etc. The blotches are a darker pinker pearl that also have scattered faint orange speckles in the outer edges of the blotches. The orange speckling is also very noticeable/brighter along the bottom edge of the sides where the belly scales begin as well as some faint speckling on the belly. The skin between the scales is lavender. The tongue is a lavender-like color with a lighter pale pink edging. The eyes have a very pale blue outer ring, then a darker slightly grayish color merges into a wide area of brownish-gold speckles. The black pupil has a gold ring around it. You can't see the outer pale blue ring in the closeup photo - you only see it when he moves his eyeball around as the scales kinda block it. And in the photo the brownish-gold tend to drown out the grayish color. As far as I can tell there is NO browns/blacks/grays on this snake other than the eye/pupil.

They are not the best pics (indoor lighting didn't help any) and I am still trying to get him cleaned up and the wounds treated so he's a little rough looking.

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Doesn't look albino. . . Maybe axanthic? Where was it caught? more pics!

Ronnie Nocera

>>Doesn't look albino. . . Maybe axanthic? Where was it caught? more pics!
>>

I believe that for it to be axanthic there can be no yellow pigment so that would mean the orange would be red or pink and there would be no gold in the eyes.

Pigment cells(chromatophores) known as xanthophores are responsible for yellow coloration, and in conjunction with keratin retention within these cells is what makes animals appear yellow, especially as they age.........so if this animal was axanthic, it would still remain black due to the melanin still being present, and would "mask" any possible axanthism the animal would have genotypically.

Now if the pupils are indeed BLACK, and not deep blood/ruby red as I mentioned in my previous post,....then this animal is still an amelanistic(albino) animal,...but it then would be better classified as a "paradox" albino, due to it's ability to retain melanin within the eye when it should NOT. If this is the case, it is certainly a very rare occurrence and I'm not aware of any of these in the hobby at all to date.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

and not Keratin retention!,.....hate when that happens!..LOL!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

>>and not Keratin retention!,.....hate when that happens!..LOL!
>>
>>
>> ~Doug
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>>"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

This is a really wild guess bu it could be a hypomelenistic calico cow sucker (natural black rat morph)
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My collection
1.0.0 Normal Taiwan Beauty Snake
1.0.0 Normal Black Rat Snake
1.0.0 White-sided Black Rat Snake
1.0.0 Anery Corn Snake
1.0.0 Amel Corn Snake
1.0.0 Normal Common Garter Snake
Wish List
1.0.0 Black Racer
0.0.1 Jungle Carpet Python
1.0.0 Spilotes
1.0.0 Blue Beauty Snake

>>
>>This is a really wild guess bu it could be a hypomelenistic calico cow sucker (natural black rat morph)
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I had thought of that, but if that were the case there should be some black in various spots on the body of the snake and there is not a speck of black anywhere (except the eyes).

It certainly appears to be amelanistic(albino) to me.

One thing that seems puzzling however, is the eye color you're mentioning. I would be willing to bet good money that on closer inspection under a strong light source, that the pupil is actually a deep deep "ruby-red", or blood-red coloration. There are many deep red eyed snakes that appear to be black at first glance. I even have a hypo Lavender corn that has eyes that are such deeply colored red, they actually look black unless looked at under good light from the right angle.

I also have a leucistic Texas Rat that has very deeply colored red eyes,......so much so that I wasn't even aware of them being red until a couple months after I purchased it as a "normal" leucistic.

Take yours outside and hold it by the head, and turn it in different angles in good sunlight, and see if the pupils are indeed deep red.

This is probably a tyrosenase posetive albino, meaning it has the enzyme protein that sythesizes melanin, but cannot do so properly. These animals are somewhat darker that Tyrosenase negative albinos because they cannot produce this protein/enzyme, leaving them much whiter than the tyrosenase posetive animals decribed previously. Additionally, this can very often leave the eyes darker looking as well. This could VERY WELL be the case here with yours.

BTW,...that's a VERY cool find!,.....I'd just love to find a freak mutation like that in the wild!

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

>>It certainly appears to be amelanistic(albino) to me.
>>
>> One thing that seems puzzling however, is the eye color you're mentioning. I would be willing to bet good money that on closer inspection under a strong light source, that the pupil is actually a deep deep "ruby-red", or blood-red coloration. There are many deep red eyed snakes that appear to be black at first glance. I even have a hypo Lavender corn that has eyes that are such deeply colored red, they actually look black unless looked at under good light from the right angle.
>>

I used a strong pen-light last night and could not pick up a red color. Today (now that the sun is out from all the storms), I looked at his eyes closely and again, no noticeable red could be seen. The only difference I could see between last night (with the pen-light) and today (in the sunlight) is that the grayish color (between the outer blue ring and the brown-gold area) was actually more bluish than grayish. Right now, if the pupil is red it is so dark as to not be distinguishable from black from what I can see. I will keep trying to check him out and try to get some better pics.

He is a doll. Very well behaved if just a tad head shy, but then my luck has always run that way.. fresh wild caughts being far more docile/tame than captive bred ROFL. He did give me a small fecal sample that I will run tomorrow to check for parasites. Probably will be a few days before he is settled enough to want to eat.

>>
>> BTW,...that's a VERY cool find!,.....I'd just love to find a freak mutation like that in the wild!
>>
>>

I think the only thing that would have made this an even better find was if it had been an eastern hognose instead ROFL. I love them little chubby snakes.

Wow!,....black eyes huh?,......I'm not aware of any Black Rat mutations/morphs that have a complete lack of melanin on the entire body with the exception of the eyes. I would definitely hold onto that one, do some test breedings, and see if it is a inheritable recessive genetic trait(I would bet that it is).

You more than likely have a very unique, one of a kind morph that hasn't been seen in the hobby yet.

It seems "somewhat" genetically similar to the so-called "Calico Cow Sucker", but it definitely is NOT the same genetic mutation since I couldn't detect the first sign of any dark pigment on the body.

Good luck with it!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

>>Wow!,....black eyes huh?,......I'm not aware of any Black Rat mutations/morphs that have a complete lack of melanin on the entire body with the exception of the eyes. I would definitely hold onto that one, do some test breedings, and see if it is a inheritable recessive genetic trait(I would bet that it is).
>>
>> You more than likely have a very unique, one of a kind morph that hasn't been seen in the hobby yet.
>>

i kinda figured i will ultimately have to do breeding tests. i'm gonna get it probed next month to determine for certain it's gender. Then i'll try to find a nice adult of the opposite sex to breed. Who knows, it may very well be a T positive albino whose eyes just get way too dark to see the pupil as red as it ages - maybe with a hatchling it would be easier to see red (though the blue and gold/brown does throw that theory off a little).

I agree!,......this seems like one of those strange genetic anomoly deals where the rules were tossed out the window!

I would also do as you stated, and this will also take several years of course, but I'd find an absolutely normal Black Rat(het for nothing) to breed it to first,....then breed the offspring back to each other, and also back to the mutant parent. This way, you won't have any weird recessive gene(s) to corrupt the results in your quest to produce more of the same.

If by chance your mutant snake is a male,....you could also try breeding it to a "normal" albino, etc...to see if it might be compatible with the known type(s) or not.

In any case, that's a VERY interesting snake!,.....and I certainly wouldn't mind having that one in my collection!..LOL!

Good luck with the future breedings!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Whatever it's genetic makeup is,it's a very cool find.
Got any locality info.?
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"Upon Thy Belly Thou Shalt Go"

>>Whatever it's genetic makeup is,it's a very cool find.
>>Got any locality info.?
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>>"Upon Thy Belly Thou Shalt Go"

southern Maryland.

Southern MD gave up the rusty and now...possible T amel blk rat

Was that nose rubbed that much when you found it?
KJ
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KJUN Snakehaven
Pituophis.net

>>Was that nose rubbed that much when you found it?
>>KJ
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Yes, the nose is rubbed pretty raw. Mostly that was because the person who found the snake kept it in a bucket overnight before bringing it to me. Besides the small injury under the eye that you can see in the picture, there is a much larger injury under the other eye. The tip of the tail is missing and it has several small cuts and punctures along it's body. It looks like it got into a fight with an ill-tempered shrew, small rodent, or most likely a small feral cat a few days before it was found as those injuries were all scabbed over. It also has a few older scars from encounters. You can see one such scar in the first picture. Lower left coil... that orange pigmented line shows the lower part of the scar and you can see the messed up scales above it.