Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is anyone breeding Eastern Black Rats? These snakes are distinctive in that they have a silver colored iris. I have seen specimens in Eastern and central Va. and N.C.

You might check with Nick Mesa, and Uwharrie reptiles. I don't know if either of them have hatchlings this year, but they do breed them.

Eye color is variable and is not indicative of Alleganiensis black rats. I personally have KY locality rats w/o these eyes, Daniel Parker has eastern rats from the SC uplands that do not have that eye color either.

Pic of a brown eyed NC BRS.
http://herp-pix.org/pantherophis/slides/P1000817.htm

Is that animal from the western part of the state? It is also showing a fair amount of pattern. That is a great picture.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/september13th/7282079998/
Brown Eyed Black ratsnake from the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia. Can't get any more east than that. Once again eye color is variable in ratsnakes. There is no correlation between eye color and locality. None.

I agree. It's similar to the extreme variability of iris and tongue color in many Yellows, Everglades, Blacks, Gray and Texas Ratsnakes. I have seen all sorts of natural variation in these snakes as well.

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

serpentinespecialties.webs.com/index.htm

I found 3 adults in the exact same spot in eastern Kansas. 2 had very dark eyes, darker than the North Carolina one in the picture. The other one had reddish eyes, kind of like some yellow or glades rats. I think I've found 1 or 2 in Arkansas or Missouri that had the silvery eyes, but I couldn't tell you exactly where. While like these other guys are saying, the eye color can vary in eastern populations, however most of the ones I've seen with the silvery eyes were from the eastern part of their range.

What I am suggesting is that snakes from an area have a dominate iris color. Most Black Rats from Eastern Virginia seem to have a silver eye color.

To talk about the eye color of "Black Rats" from eastern Kansas, is not exactly the same thing. Eastern Black Rats are a color variation in Pantherophis alleghaniensis. Eastern Kansas Black Rats are Pantherophis spilodies. Still I think that all the Rat Snake morphs have dominant iris colorings that change from region to region. You can also see this in the color seen between scales. Many of the animals pictured from the west seem to show a red color between their scales, while the Rat Snakes from the east have white.

Another example is seen in Baird's Rat Snakes. The coloring of snakes found in Mexico is clearly different from animals found in Texas.

Might I ask if those in an area where "Greenish" Rat Snakes are found (SC?), is there a dominate iris color seen in these snakes?

I was just trying to state that I've seen variation in eye color, within the same populations. I apologize if I got off topic. I have caught a lot of eastern rat snakes, as well (NC,VA, and MD)and have seen variation in their eye color. Years ago I had a pair from Orange county New York, and an adult female from southeastern CT, that had the silver eyes.

Really wish I could. I've raised hatchlings caught in the wild here in VA. But its illegal to sell them here or posses more than 5 of them so a clutch would put me over.