So, this thread was something I wasn’t sure I would ever actually get to make. The breeder took forever to get her to me, and at one point I wasn’t even sure I would actually get her. When I got her on the 27th of May it was also obvious that she has an RI. I took her to the vet and already have her started on some antibiotics. She is still eating so I believe she will be quick to recover.
Despite the trouble I have had to go through, I am glad I did get her. She is one of the most curious/fearless snakes I have ever encountered, and will slither up to me when I get near her cage just to see what is going on. She is one of the prettiest albinos I have seen as well. I never really liked albino snakes all that much until I seen this girl, as most (especially albino BPs) are mainly yellow and kinda plain IMO. She is (from the research I have done) completely unique and there isn’t anything close to her online anywhere. Sometime in the future I hope to find a male to pair her with, but if I don’t I am happy to just have her as a pet.
She is around 5’6" (167cm) long and weighs 945 grams. I named her Polaris and she is 5-6 years old. Here she is in all her glory;
The stripe is visible down the whole length of her body, but just fades from having all that red in it and gives her a lovely contrast. I also like that the tips of her tongue are white. Guess they would have been black were she not an albino.
I will likely update this as she gets better/whenever I can get a full body pic.
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What type of enclosure are you using? I know nothing about these. Do they like to climb or do they stay mostly earthbound? @ashleyraeanne
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@thecrawdfather They are semi-arboreal and they love to climb and are adapted for it. You should look up videos/pics of them climbing straight up trees, it is impressive. Right now I have her in a smaller enclosure than I would really like, mainly so I can watch her while she is on quarantine and clean easily. I have a simple 29 gallon right now, but I plan to make a larger enclosure myself. The measurements are likely going to be 48x24x30. I may also make it taller than that, or I could just make a section of it a nice climbing space.
They can be kept using ambient temps and you can let them burmate during the colder months as they are native over a large portion of the U.S. (including Indiana). Right now my room temps range from 86°F during the day and around 72-80°F at night. During the colder months it stays in the mid 60s unless I kick my space heater on and then it stays 70-80 depending on how long I keep it on. They keep just like Arizona mountain kings and a few other North American colubrids in terms of temps.
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The struggle to get a full body shot is real. She is nearly impossible for me to manage with one hand since she is longer than I am tall lol. I did sit her in my yard to see if I could get some nice shots of her. Instead of staying on top of the plants she decided to hide in it. This is the shot I got of her before she went under them. 
She sneaky.
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This is the best full body shot I have managed. She is too long for me to get into the frame fully stretched out lol. She has been given 3 shots of antibiotics so far and is still doing alright. Still some wheezing but she has many more shots to go.
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Oh my goodness!! She’s gorgeous! Who’d you get her from? ^^
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@imtooclosey88 I don’t think I am allowed to name breeders, that said I don’t believe they are selling on MM anymore as they sold all of their breeder females(or so they said). I also wouldn’t recommend them as they knew this girl was sick, didn’t tell me and aren’t willingly helping me with the vet bills. I am going through PayPal to try and get some money back from them as they went quiet on me and have been for 3 weeks now. Sucks too because they had great reviews.
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ahh thats alright! do you know any breeders that sell that type?
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Nope. As stated in my original post, she is completely unique from what I know. I can’t find anything online even slightly resembling her. Eastern rat snakes are highly variable throughout their range. I have heard that the ones from NC can (rarely) have stripes so her bloodline could originate from there. The greenish rats, yellow rats, and Everglades rats (all variations of the Eastern rat) are known to have stripes as well. None of them look like her as albinos though. None of them have that red/cream/white that she does.
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woah! thats insane! she’s definitely stunning tho:)
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So, I have had to get some testing done on her today as the antibiotics I was giving her had seemingly no affect. She has gotten a bit worse (louder breathing and more open mouthed breathing) but is still active and eating. Results for the many cultures I am getting done will be in a week to 10 days. I am hoping she hangs in there until then. She is so personable and I have already gotten a bit attached to her. She acts more like a lizard than a snake.
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Eastern Black rats are my favorite snake. Very beautiful. I hope to get an albino some day.
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I decided to help her out with her breathing while we wait for the test results. I know them having their heads angled up helps them breathe, so I got some small PVC pipes and made a cross bar of sorts for her earlier. She is already taking advantage of it and hasn’t been open mouth breathing as much since she started using it.
Not the best pic because it is through the glass, but she seems pleased with it. It also lets her climb more so that is good. She is still eating and drinking, so that is a good sign.
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She looks comfortable. Hope she gets better soon. Good luck. Is she possibly a licorice albino?
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Thanks, I hope the test results are in this week. And no, she isn’t a licorice. Licorice rats are white sided black/Texas rat snakes (black rats tend to get bigger than Texas rats and are not the same species from my understanding, but instead Texas rats are a subspecies). The albinos are really clean and don’t look anything like her. They only have a dorsal stripe and full white sides. The only thing I could think of is that she might be a darker colored/high red greenish rat snake(still an Eastern rat snake variant) albino. I have never seen an albino greenish rat snake look like her though. Chances are she is as she was advertised from the breeder (as stated in a previous post, some black rats in NC can have stripes). If she pulls through, finding a nice albino or het albino male that has stripes like her maybe tricky.
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Sorry didnt see the previous post.
Turns out she is actually 6’1" (185cm) according to the tool for measuring snakes on the MM resource tab (http://serpwidgets.com/main/measure). Way bigger than I thought so I might have to make her enclosure slightly bigger now. Still waiting on the test results but she hasn’t gotten any worse in the past week.
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Glad she is doing good. Saw a big male stripped rat snake on mm. Too bad he isnt het albino, but he is really nice.
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I seen that one too. Looks like he might be wild caught with how big/scuffed up he is (he looks like he has a bad nose rub, common in wild caught snakes due to stress). Males in captivity rarely get over 5 feet. Though she doesn’t have solid/wide stripes down her sides like him, or any Greenish rat snake for that matter. The only stripe that stays but still fades slightly is her dorsal stripe.
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