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I just bought a leucistic texas rat and it has 3 scales that are black....i was just wondering what was up with that....you cant see them in the pic but it was a cool pic so i thought i'd post it

Hey!

I've got 1.1 of these beauties.
One of them has also one black scale, but also one red.
The other one is all white with no colored scales at all.

Dont know why but they give 100% white-scaled juveniles.

Regards,
Miro @ Sweden

When a Leucistics eyes reflect that red, it usually means the animal is Het. for Albino. This would explain the reason for the red scale. Sometimes there are defects in the defects.....

Am I mistaken or is this just symantics?

I thought if a leucistic's eyes were red then it is homozygous albino??

:O)
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

You are correct, they would be homo for the trait if they had pink eyes.

It is not all that uncommon for a leucistic snake to have a few dots of color on them according to Dr. Bechtel. It has nothing to do with their also being albino.

Thanks. I'm not familiar with Mr.Bechtel, where can I find his works?
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

"When a Leucistic Ratsnake has eyes that reflect red, it usually means they are Het. Albino."

There are Albino Leucistics which have red eyes. There is a difference. The animal in the photo is of a Leucistic that eyes that reflect red not an Albino Leucistic. The "reflecting red" characteristic is similar to what happens in photos of people refered to as "red-eye". It is a reflection, the people do not have red eyes. If you look at a Leucistic Ratsnakle in the right light, you can usually tell that it is Het. for Albino.

Thanks, I knew I was missing something there, lol. That's very interesting! I always went along with the "you can't tell genotype by the appearance" line but lately the ball python people have certainly been proving that wrong.

Thanks for the tip.
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

I guess i wont worry about it then..
Thanks

Magnificent looking snakes. Do you house them together? I am looking into these great looking snakes for a large enclosure with branches,etc was thinking a pair.
I read as great looking as they are just that mean and psychotic?
Thanks

The TX are known for their bad dispositions. There are exceptions but......Leucistic Black Ratsnakes look identical & are known to be quite docile. Again, there can be exceptions but I haven't seen many mean Black Rats.....at least not as mean as TX - LOL

I just posted some pics of my new baby leu. tx a couple posts up. They do have a bad reputation but they are really only nippy when they're young i read. Mine is but their bark is worse than their bite when their little. Mine gets really pissed she scrunches up for a strike, shakes her tail and stares you down for awhile. But as they grow up they calm down as long as they are handled daily. I believe personally that this species has a bad rep. The most "vicious" ones are proabably wild not captive born. Like i said as long as they are treated properly they should be alright. But ask anyone who owns a snake around here and they'll tell you, you always get bit at least once, no matter how docile.
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-Doug Daly

"The most "vicious" ones are proabably wild not captive born."

There probably aren't too many wild leucistic texas rats I agree that they don't all deserve the reputation, but from my experience they do seem to be a lot jumpier than some other NA ratsnakes. Handling is the best way to overcome that, but make sure you don't overdo it. While yours is new, it should be settling in with minimal stress. Personally, I don't handle any young snakes until they're about 16" or more because the babies are almost always skittish. A lot of mine calmed down on their own as they grew up, but I did make it a point to handle them more once they got past the fragile baby phase.

Im sorry if you didn't understand. I meant rergular old texas rat snakes. Mine is about 18" long and very calm, she only bit me once and i dunno if it'll happen again because when i pick her up she doesn't even seem to care.

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-Doug Daly

Your post is an eye opener. I recall hearing of black ratsnakes that were white,albino,leucistic but didnt think much of it thought they were incredibly rare.
This is great info. I am going to do some research on them and how available they are look around in classifieds to.
Thanks a lot as you can tell I am new to rat snakes.

THat's an awesome photo! what a beauty!