Close to 20 years ago a friend caught wind of a baby black snake collected wild in western NC that was white in color. He visited the person who caught the wild snake and determined that it was a male, and a black rat snake. A couple of years later, the snake grew and black freckling appeared; much like a Palmetto corn snake. He bred it to a normal wild caught female. He raised up some hets and paired them up every year, never producing a visual. Much of this was due to the female’s propensity to lay eggs in the worst spot in the enclosure. For the last 3 years I have taken over this project for him, and similarly never produced a visual. Until this week. This year I produced 12 normal phase snakes and figured the gene just must not be heritable. But as I sorted the babies, there were 2 eggs still left to hatch. One was DiE and when I cut it open -it was white. The other was healthy -and thankfully also white. I have not sexed this snake yet, but will after first shed. Really hoping it’s a male.
First photo is of the grandfather. I doubt he’s still living.
I had posted about this on the cornsnake forums back in 2012, but sadly that site no longer has traffic. I just thought someone here might find this interesting. Thanks for looking and I will update progress and growth pics if people are interested.
If it turns out to be a male, I can pair him up with the females in about 2 years. If it’s a female, it’s going to be a long time. The father of this snake is pushing 7 feet and a female is going to have to have some size on her.
Awesome results! Congrats on finally hitting that white snake you all have been chasing. Are you able to keep trying for more clutches in the hopes of hitting more white babies? Either way, hopefully this baby is the sex you’re preferring, and grows up well to produce for you.
Interesting! This is a very very cool project, grandpa is gorgeous. I wonder if there’s a correlation between the white snakes and a difficulty getting out of the egg?
I’m inclined to think it’s just been bad genetic odds. I’ve always cut any eggs that didn’t hatch and never saw a white one until this year. I won’t push these to double clutch so it will probably be next summer before I can discover more. But hopefully by then this baby will have some size (and color change) and I will keep updating.
Certainly white pigmentation (or loss of other pigments, I guess?) is linked to a lot of problems in many animals
I believe super spider ball pythons (a lethal combo) come out mostly or all white
And in mammals, high white pigmentation, especially if paired with light colored eyes, is commonly correlated with deafness and other issues. In horses, a foal that inherets two copies of specific white color genes will 100% die from severe internal organ issues - lethal white syndrome. So the connection is there!
Not at ALL saying this is a lethal combo or anything, just that yes lots of white can be linked to issues, so it COULD be related but obviously the grandfather survived and one baby has so far, so doesn’t appear 100% lethal even if it is a white color connection
First meal offering today, since I saw it had shed. One big difference in black rats and most other colubrids I have hatched is the (so far) 100% rate of taking frozen thawed on the first try. Sorry for the terrible photo with 2 surfaces reflecting but I wasn’t going to risk him spitting it out if I startled him.
Oh, and another update. We got hold of the man with the snake in the original photo. He said that it had died several years back. Unfortunately that snake was overfed and obese when we last saw him, and I suspect that might have led to his demise.
Per the rules of the community, we aren’t supposed to show feeding pics. Anything that shows the dead feeder is not permitted, to my understanding. Post-feeding pics are allowed, though!
Are you able to keep trying for more clutches in the hopes of hitting more white babies? Either way, hopefully this baby is the sex you’re preferring, and grows up well to produce for you.