Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, a few years ago I posted a picture of this wild caught black rat snake pictured here.

I bred him to a normal females, raised up the babies and bred them this year. The first clutch just hatched and there is one baby like him, proving the genetics. I'm wondering if its a T positive albino. There is no red in the eyes of the wild male or the baby. Its been a lot of fun and I hope to hatch a few more this year. Anyone know if T positive snakes all have red in the eyes? Thanks!

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Mark Kennedy

The only way you will know if it is a T-positive snake is to do DOPA test on the skin.
Is this snake a Pantherophis alleghaniensis or a Pantherophis spiloides? (Found east of the alleghanies or west of the alleghanies is how you tell.)

Pantherophis alleghaniensis from southern Maryland

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Mark Kennedy

So you know you have a recessive trait. So all of the F1 generation are hetero , that is to say that they are carriers of the trait. You didn't say how many offspring you got from the clutch that gave you the homo recessive offspring. At least now you know that you can cross back the new snake with the original and get 100% back snakes with that trait, provided that they are not the same sex. Or you can cross the F2 back with one of the F1's and you should get about a 50% ratio of the homo recessive snakes if it is a single gene that is causing the mutation.

Best of luck with that.

I do have a question you you. What did you do with the normals that you got from the F1 generation? Did you keep them or just sell them off as normals? It also might be nice to see what the F1 normals looked like as adults. Are they black with no pattern showing? What color are their eyes?

the pictures look to me very much like the moonshines which are a T . The moonshines however turn a very bright yellow as adults whereas this one is a much lighter color. This difference could also be due to the difference in locality phenotype. The moonshines from Horry County, SC are the greenish ratsnakes from the black/yellow integrade zone and turn bright yellow as adults whereas yours is from southern MD full fledged black as they get black ratsnakes so they turn out a lighter color. Just my theory. WOuld be interesting to test breed one of yours to a moonshine to see if all visuals hatch out. I tried to pm you but it wasn't successful.
Did you breed yours to a female from the same locality? I too herp southern MD from time to time in St Marys and Calvert and would love a pair of offspring. Locale specific morphs are what I like!

Sorry it doesnt look like my whole message went thru. Meant to say that the hatchlings in the pic look like moonshines and the plus sign didn't appear with the "T"........T

? could be a form of extreme hypo melanism....maybe like lavender in corns....look close at eyes...are they red ?..really deep dark ruby red.....

they are sweet...I saw these years ago...and have the pic saved .....been waiting to hear about these...like them a lot..along with lavenders, chocolate brown ones....and the moonshine stuff......

as asked...did you sell off F1 s?....

.......let me know...I bought 2 more tanks tonight....getting closer to actually getting some
snake again...!

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........JY