Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got a little female at a show yesterday. I'm curious to see how she'll look as she grows. The breeder said the parents look much nicer than most greenish rats, but I didn't get to see them so I'm not sure what stood out about them. I picked this one because she was the lightest in the bunch, but I don't have a great feel for the variation in greenish rats so I don't really have any preference for lighter or darker individuals I guess. I've seen Jim Godfrey's moonshines and hets, but it doesn't seem like many others work with this form. I'd love to see pics of others if anyone feels like sharing though. Here's my new girl.

Kevin, I have an adult pair that are very interesting looking. they are from KJ Lodrique and het. for moonshine. Their patterns are a combo of blotched like a grey, with some stripping like a yellow. The blotches and stripes are a dark metallic greyish brown and the groundcolor is like a dirty yellowish green. It looks a bit like someone tried to color over a light grey groundcolor with a highlighter. Sometimes they appear to glow. This integrade form represents a unique population/locality, and thats part of their appeal. I am sure the naturally occuring integrades display a wide variety of coloration depending on gene pool influence. I can see how a man made integrade would do so as well. The yellows should become more noticeable as she matures.

Very nice Kevin!. I would have chosen the lighter one as well. Here are a few examples of my normal "moonshine" hets and morphs that I acquired from Jim.

Here is a pic of the male shortly after I acquired him. He started off with a very gray coloration very similar to your hatchling or any of the obsoletus complex....

A pic of the female at the same time....

This is a more recent pic of the female het taken back in June of this year. As you can see, she has lightened up more in her saddle blotching, as well as gradually developed more of the adult longitudinal striped pattern typical of these natural intergrades from the Yellow Rat influence......

Here is the morph female as a very young hatchling. Note the pupils "look" black in the photo, but much later on I noticed that they were actually VERY deep ruby/blood colored.

here is the very same above slightly darker female t-plus "moonshine" taken months back. Her pupils only seem very pink red in this photo, but that is actually from the flash and are actually MUCH deeper dark ruby/blood colored.

the lighter morph male taken the same day shortly after acquiring him from Jim. He has lightened up BIG-TIME and got much more vivid bright yellow since this pic was taken!!

older pic of the same lighter morph male above. His pupils are VERY light red/pink and has since developed much more intense bright yellow coloration as well.

a pic of one of the wild-caught females Jim bred to the original morph male he captured about 130 yards away from were he found the morph male....

a pic of another female he bred the morph male to from the exact same area....

I will try to get some recent photos of these taken sometime soon, as all of them have ontogenetically changed dramatically in their coloration since these photos were taken.

-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Thanks, both of you. Those are looking very nice Doug-I really like the prominent striping on those WC girls and the morphs are obviously very unique. I'm a sucker for clean gray obsoleta-complex rats so I really like the way my girl looks now, but I know that will change big time (she's already got yellow on her venter). I just hope she turns into a nicer looking yellow/greenish specimen instead of some of the browner individuals I've seen. Half the fun is finding out though and at least she'll probably have some heavy black longitudinal striping either way.

thanks Kevin!....yeah, I really like them alot too..

Yes, yours is sure to stripe-up and change a good bit as it matures. No telling as to exactly what extent, but as you said finding out is the mojority of the fun..LOL!

I love comparing progreesion shots of these and many other types of snakes too. Sometimes it is just ridiculous how much they transform as they mature.

have fun with her!

~Doug
-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

I don't see many people working with these intergrades. Good to see someone else enjoys them. All of my Moonshine hets mature to have the neon yellow coloration leading me to believe it is a het marker for the morph. I have never seen a w/c example display the coloration I see in the hets, and I have seen a lot of them in the wild. Nice looking snakes.

Maybe this will be one of my projects for the New Year. I am looking for new snakes to keep and breed, and I like the look of the Greenish rat morphs (as I have stated elsewhere, the Greenish rats were some of the snakes of my childhood). Will there be babies available in 2012?