Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, today I caught a BEAUTIFUL black rat snake. I was wondering if any one has crossed them with cornsnakes before? I know you can cross the calif. kings or the yellow rats with the corns to get interesting crosses. so has anyone ever done this with the black rats and corns? if so what were the results?
-Adam

You answered your own question. If you can cross a Yellow Rat with a Corn Snake, then you can cross a Black Rat with a Corn Snake.

A Corn Snake (Red Rat Snake) is Elaphe guttata. The Common Rat Snake (includes Black, Yellow, Texas, Gray, and Everglages)is Elaphe obsoleta. Since you know that you can cross a Yellow with a Corn, then from just looking at their scientific names you can tell that you can also cross a Corn to any of the other E. obsoleta's.

Yes, they have been crossed. Before you do so, ask yourself what you will do with the offspring. They will not likely be very marketable. With the exception of our good friends on the hybrid forum, most herpers will consider them "mutts" ... I have a book on corns and other ratsnakes that has a pic of one such cross. Nothing special really. Duffy

All the best,
Perry

I was on a reptile auction site last night, and they had a listing for a "mutt", and with only a few hours to go, not one person had bid on it. Duffy made the point very well.

We keep snakes as pets. If snakes were dogs or cats, would someone be asking a question like the one in the original post? Would someone ask if you could cross your Cocker Spaniel with a German Shepard to see what you would get? Would anyone what such a “mutt.” To take the argument one step further, would we want zoos to cross lions with tigers so we could all see ligers? It has been done, but at this time, zoos are trying to keep healthy wild type populations in case they are need to restock wild populations in the future.

This trade is unique in that we breed to get animals that don't look like the standard (wild types) and pay more for the unusually colored animals. We have seen selective breeding in dogs, but much of it was done in the past to produce a better working dog. There are no "working" breeds of snakes. We are doing it for collectors who want bragging rights to having a unique looking animal, and are willing to pay a premium for it. While I am not criticizing breeders who are responding to the market, I just wonder where wild types would come from if they were needed to restock an area to restore its biological diversity. Not from our stacks, that is for certain.

Again, thank you Duffy for responding so well to the post.

You caught a BEAUTIFUL black rat snake. Why would you want to mess with it's beauty by making hybrids? If you just want to know if a cornsnake and black rat snake can breed, then the answer is yes they can do it and produce offspring. I've seen offspring from this crossing. The babies either tend to look like the cornsnake or the blackrat snake. In most cases, you get an ugly looking corn hybrid or an ugly looking black rat snake. The people on the hybrid forum may consider them pretty and that's their view and opinion. If I had just caught a beautiful black rat snake, I would be inclined to look for a pretty black rat snake to breed it to.

Terry Parks

>>Hi, today I caught a BEAUTIFUL black rat snake. I was wondering if any one has crossed them with cornsnakes before? I know you can cross the calif. kings or the yellow rats with the corns to get interesting crosses. so has anyone ever done this with the black rats and corns? if so what were the results?
>>-Adam

Well said, but will he listen?

Great answer Terry.

the interest in hybrids. Cornsnakes alone have every color and pattern under the sun, in addition to ratsnakes comng in albino, white sided, as well as leucistic and other morphs. With all the pure blooded snakes to choose from, there's more then enough beauty to go around. Albino Tangerine Hondurans, Albino Nelsons, Grey-Bands, Bairdi Ratsnakes, Mandarin ratsnakes, etc. etc. To each his own, but you would be hard pressed to create crosses that look better then some of these guys. Just my nickles worth.

Steve