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I picked this guy up this past week, he is so cool looking that I could not pass him up. I am new to rat snakes and I am curious, what are the genetics for these? Thanks.

I believe it is simple recessive.
Ron

Thank you

White sided yellow ratsnake, right? I have white sided black rats and white sided bulls. They are both really cools snakes. There are actually 2 strains of white sided bullsnakes. Good luck with your new acquistion.

Take care,
Jeff Port

That's not a whitesided yellow . . . There's actually, as far as I know, no such thing as a whitesided yellow rat. The information I have (second hand, but from the people who caught the animal) says that asides from the whitesided black rat, there was a whitesided rat snake found in Glades County, FL. The animal was assumed to be a yellow rat snake, because of its yellow appearance, but it was later proven to be an Everglades rat (het. offspring when bred with an Everglades produced animals that were obviously as pure as Everglades get, and het. offspring produced with a yellow rat produced obvious intergrades). Many people still assume they are yellow rat snakes, because the homozygous whitesided animals are most definitely yellow, but it has something to do with the gene limiting red pigment. Many people now today are selling "whitesided yellow rat snakes", and many of these were produced by breeding a whitesided by a normal yellow, and then breeding hets, but these should all be intergrades.

Now, there may have been another wild animal found that is whitesided, but I've never heard of any other than the one.

Also, the whitesided gene in Everglades rats is allelic with the whitesided gene in black rats- breed a whitesided 'Glades to a whitesided black, and produce whitesided babies. So, there ARE intergrades on the market that are black x 'Glades. There are also a TON of black x Texas intergrades, which is what I would assume that snake is, if it has that much brown & yellow on it. There are many people who buy a generically labeled "rat snake" and automatically assume it is one or another subspecies, and there are just as many people who don't care about subspecies, but will breed any obsoleta to any other obsoleta.

Hope that doesn't make things more confusing! And also, as always, and especially with obsoleta genetics, this information is all AS I HAVE HEARD IT. There are always contradicting opinions, and it seems like there are a TON of those with obsoleta genetics and taxonomy.

thanks,
Ronnie Nocera

My female whitesided Everglades rat

Thanks for the info. Good to know. By the way, that is a very nice looking snake.

Take care,
Jeff Port

Thanks! She's one of my favorites.

Ronnie Nocera

>>Thanks for the info. Good to know. By the way, that is a very nice looking snake.
>>
>>Take care,
>>Jeff Port

I don't think brown/yellow coloration indicates any influence from TX rats. Every whitesided black rat I've ever seen started out with a yellow/brown dorsum-it darkens as they age to gray or black.

I agree. It could go either way, though. It's very difficult to look at any obsoleta and say what influence there is in it. It's why bloodlines are important to some of us!

Also, even whitesided "Texas" rats (intergrades who are mostly Texas rat, anyway) have black stripes. As I said in talking about the 'Glades, the whitesided gene represses red pigments really well, so even Texas rats who have a ton of red in them wouldn't show it when homozygous for whitesided.