Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a nice suprise today,a wild caught black rat snake that was removed form a chicken coop laid 22 perfect eggs 4 days after she was caught, and today they hatched 19 of them look totaly normal and the last 3 are stripped, I was wondering if anyone else has produced striped black rats?

What part of North America was the mother captured. If it is an Eastern Black Rat pup, you might not be able to tell that it had any stripes in a few years. There are striped Corns out there, so why not Black Rats.

I am sure that you have pups with a rare pattern. Great photos, and thanks for sharing.

Rick

She came from south east texas

Not a big deal, but SE Texas would make it a Texas Rat Snake.
Still interesting....
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Regards, Bill McGighan

Well, there actually is another (kinda) striped morph out there called the "blotchless" Black Ratsnake. Yours look very much alike. I think there's a good chance that they are the very same thing. Great find, BTW!

Congrats on your hatch.
If you live where the Black Rats are very dark, this would be masked as they mature and turn dark. It could actually be locally common.
Thanks for showing it.

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Regards, Bill McGighan

here in Pa..captive kept baby blacks tend to keep alot of the pattern as they mature moreso than the wild ones......maybe something to do with lack of natural sunlight ??? or the faster growth rate and overall different environment......actually alot of wild blacks keep a pattern more than we think......

......I think they are kinda cool.......

.......Texas rats???...look black rat to me..what do Texas rats look like as hatchlings actually/????? (from post above).....

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The texas rat is a subspecies or locality of the black rat that is why I called them black rats but the mother was indeed a texan and as adults the Texas rats don't get as dark as adults and their patterns are still totally visible.

"captive kept baby blacks tend to keep alot of the pattern as they mature moreso than the wild ones"
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That is interesting. I see the same here (TN) as well. I always chalked it off to:
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the captive getting more food and growing faster.
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and/or the wild animals are slower because they have to feed themselves and their friendly parasite load.
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and/or wild blacks have many more days of cool weather, whereas many captive neonates are kept at optimal conditions for feeding and growth and not allowed to brumate, so they grow all winter.
Ex:
A 20 inch BR may be 2 or even 1 year old in captivity and show lots of pattern.
A wild 20 incher here is already dark with only remnants of pattern and may be 3 years old!!!
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Regards, Bill McGighan

My Black Rat pups grow up to look like normal eastern Black Rats. I have no idea why your's don't. Are your's from the east side of the Allegheny Mountains?

I am in Lancaster county Pa.....

some here get black as coal....some hold alot of white pattern....some have reddish tints all over the side with slight side patterns....typical blacks actually......some from upper Pa counties I have seen with rusty tint all over and real rusty tints to the sides ,along with some white pattern......

just over the line into Maryland there have been all brown ones found ,and it's not too far from there that the first licorice was found....

as for keeping pattern......red amel blacks hold the pattern and don't turn all orange or salmon color....

Texas are blacks?.....I thought Texans were Texans.....I prefer the really patterned orange ones (just like most people I presume)...

.....good luck.....
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As far as why wild ones are darker, I read an interesting post by Bill Love a while back. I can't find it again right now to post a link, but he basically said wild snakes seem to have increased melanin from their greater sun exposure (the same principle as a suntan I guess). I may be remembering wrong, but I think he said some of their CB corns were raised outdoors and ended up darker than their indoor counterparts.

Nice one! But I'm thinking that it isn't so uncommon for obselata young to have stripes..

Matthew
Based on all the Texas ratsnakes I have seen this year.

I have had some with a little bit of striping in the neck before, but none like these......if they are not legal.....let them all go where they were taken from......if legal , keep all the striped ones and a couple more girls at least......

....cute they are.......good luck.........
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The texas/black rat is legal here and I have all my permits, so I intend on raising them up and prove out if it is a simple recessive.

I've gotta' say, those are pretty outstanding!. As was already mentioned though, it is VERY possible the unique pattern will become partially, if not totally obscured with dark pigment however.....VERY nice nonetheless!

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

an 06' female from exotic arc