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Albino Blotchless Yellow Ratsnakes

hermanbronsgeest Apr 16, 2009 02:15 PM

I obtained this pair from Mark Bell, Houten 2004. They produced for me several times. Also I outcrossed the male to my finest Whitesided Yellow/Glades (2007) and White Oak (2008) females. I had to make room, so I sold them a week ago. They sure will be missed though.

Replies (6)

fliptop Apr 17, 2009 07:49 AM

They are beautiful. Do you have a pic of the white oak cross offspring?

hermanbronsgeest Apr 17, 2009 08:31 AM

Unfortunately I don't have a camera. I rely on others to take pictures for me. I did some outcrossing because I find the Blotchless trait very interesting, but I really don't care much for albinos.

Last year I crossed the male to 2 outstanding White Oak females, giving 40 hatchlings. I held on to a pair from both females (= 2.2). While 3 of them look like Grey Rats with a slight touch of lemon, one of them is actually turning greenish. These do quite well, already feeding on hoppers, so I expect have an F2 about 2 years from now.

The year before I crossed the male with a beautiful lemon colored Whitesided Yellow/Glades female, giving 11 hatchlings. It was quite a struggle to get these going, as they would only take live prey, with the exception of 4 specimens who, as a coincidence, turned out to be 2.2 and also the most colorful of the whole bunch. Needless to say, these are the ones I held on to. They now feed on adult mice and chicken hatchlings, so with just a little luck I'll have an F2 next year. Perhaps even the first Whitesided Blotchless Yellow Ratsnake ever.

Wouldn't that be cool?

BillMcgElaphe Apr 17, 2009 09:54 AM

Great looking animals, HB
Listening to your genetic strategy, you sound like a fine craftsman, like a watchmaker, sculpting your next masterpiece.
Good luck with them.
-----
Regards, Bill McGighan

hermanbronsgeest Apr 17, 2009 02:11 PM

Well thank you very much. I always put a lot of effort into outcrossing high end specimens, and trying genetic recombinations no one ever thought of before (as far as I know, that is). Next on the list is Chocolate x Rusty Black Ratsnakes, how about that?

fliptop Apr 19, 2009 12:36 PM

That would be awesome.

Last year I crossed my albino/hypo? yellow with a greenish female and a gulf hammock female. Here's one of the gulf hammock offspring (also already on fuzzies--these ones have grown faster than my greenish babies and het white-side glades/yellow ones).

hermanbronsgeest Apr 20, 2009 09:37 AM

Sounds familiar. Based on my own experiences, I have the impression that, dare I say it, juveniles of the blotched races of Pantherophis obsoletus (Black, Grey, TX) have better feeding responses and (consequently) better growth rates than the striped races (Glades, Yellow). In general, that is, with Blacks being (by far) the best and Glades being (by far) the worst. But then again, this could be just a random artefact of the limited genepools that I have sampled.

BTW, your Albino Yellow * Gulf Hammock cross looks remarkably similar to my Albino Blotchless Yellow * White Oak cross.

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