Rat Snakes Traits - Category upgrade! [DONE] [1564]

eaglereptiles · January 13, 2021, 10:56am

In preparation to promote Rat Snakes to a top level category, we need to build a trait list for the genes and combos.

For each of these, we need to know what kind of gene it is (recessive/incdom/dom) OR what combination of genes represent it.

Please add anything that is missing or correct me where I am wrong.

If you know anyone that work with Rat Snakes, send them a link to this thread and ask them to help out.

Old World Locality:

Elaphe
Mandarin Rat Snake - Elaphe mandarina

Beauty Rat Snake - Elaphe taeniura

Japanese Kunishiri Rat Snake - Elaphe climacophora

Steppes (Goins) Rat Snake - Elaphe dione

Thailand Bamboo Rat Snake - oreocryptophis porphyraceus

Coelognathus

Philippine rat snake, C. erythrurus

Black copper rat snake or yellow striped snake, C. flavolineatus

Trinket snake, C. helena

Copperhead rat snake, C. radiatus

Indonesian rat snake, C. subradiatus

Euprepiophis

Japanese forest rat snake, E. conspicillatus

Mandarin rat snake, E. mandarinus

Gonyosoma

Green trinket snake, G. frenatum

Celebes black-tailed rat snake, G. jansenii

Red-tailed green rat snake, G. oxycephalum

Oreocryptophis

Mountain rat snake, O. porphyracea

Orthriophis

Cantor’s rat snake, O. cantoris

Hodgson’s rat snake, O. hodgsoni

100 flower rat snake, O. moellendorffi

Beauty snake, O. taeniurus

Ptyas

Keeled rat snake, P. carinata

P. dhumnades

Sulawesi black racer, P. dipsas

White-bellied rat snake, P. fusca

Chinese rat snake, P. korros

P. luzonensis

Oriental rat snake, P. mucosa

Green rat snake, P. nigromarginata

Rhadinophis

Green bush snake, R. prasinus

Rhynchophis

Rhinoceros ratsnake

Zamenis

Transcaucasian rat snake, Z. hohenackeri

Italian Aesculapian snake, Z. lineatus

Aesculapian snake, Z. longissimus

Persian rat snake, Z. persicus

Leopard snake, Z. situla

New World Locality:

Bogertophis

Baja California rat snake, B. rosaliae

Trans-Pecos rat snake, B. subocularis

Pantherophis

Eastern rat snake, P. alleghaniensis

Black rat snake (Northern locality of the Eastern rat snake), P. alleghaniensis (obsoletus used by some)

Yellow rat snake (Southern locality), P. alleghaniensis (obsoletus quadrivittata used by some)

Everglades rat snake (Floridian locality), P. alleghaniensis (obsoletus rossalleni used by some)

Greenish rat snake (naturally occurring mix of the black and yellow Eastern rat localities), P. alleghaniensis

Texas rat snake, P. obsoleta lindheimeri
(debate on the reclassification from E. obsoleta lindheimeri still seems to be ongoing despite most accepting P. obsoleta lindheimeri).

Note: There is still debate on the Eastern rat snake reclassification. Many still consider them separate subspecies despite evidence suggesting otherwise. (They seem to work much the same as Rosy Boas).

Baird’s rat snake, P. bairdi

Great Plains rat snake, P. emoryi

Corn snake, P. guttatus

Western fox snake, P. ramspotti

Gray rat snake, P. spiloides

Eastern fox snake, P. vulpinus (P. gloydi merged with it in 2011, though some consider it a separate subspecies)

Pseudelaphe

Mexican rat snake, P. flavirufa

Senticolis

Green rat snake, S. triaspis

Spilotes

Chicken snake or yellow rat snake aka serpiente tigre, S. pullatus

Traits/morphs:

Amelanistic
Anerythristic
Axanthic
Caramel
Golden
Hypomelanistic
Lava
Lavender
Microscale
Motley
Red coat
Stripe
Palmetto
Scaleless
Whitesided (ghost)
Moonshine
Lemon
Silverleaf
Blonde

Line bred:

Other/unknown:
Calico
Brindle

Dominant:
Rusty - super= leucistic

Combo names:
Snow?

halohelix · January 13, 2021, 3:12pm

Axanthic is also known as anery, hypo is another that’s recessive. Hybino is albino and hypo, double recessive.

Scaleless is found in most ratsnakes, not just texas rats.

halohelix · January 13, 2021, 3:15pm

I also believe there’s a trait called “stripe”, though I’m not sure if it’s a line bred thing or not.

dab_reptiles · January 13, 2021, 3:41pm

Calico is a trait in beauty ratsnakes and black ratsnakes, possibly other species as well. It’s recessive in black rats, but I’ve never seen a “het calico” beauty snake, so I’m not sure if it’s polygenetic or dominant or if I’m just unlucky.

Beauty rats, Everglades, Kings, and Emory’s can also be albino (recessive). Pretty sure most ratsnakes can be albino, but those I’ve definitely seen.

Most ratsnakes can be hypo, including Everglades, Kings, and Beauties (recessive).

Transpecos can be blonde and axanthic (recessive).

Mandarins can be axanthic - though this doesn’t show up until they’re grown. Not sure if it’s recessive or polygenetic.

Leucistic is more of an incomplete dominant in Black Rats, since the “het Leucy” is a Rusty, which is a visual indicator.

Whitesided is a recessive in at least black rats, possibly also texas rats

Emory’s comes in anery.

That’s all I know, hope it helps a little!

Also you have Baird’s on there twice

dab_reptiles · January 13, 2021, 5:46pm

Axanthic is also known as anery

Sort of. Axanthic is a lack of yellow pigment, Anery is a lack of red pigment. Some snakes have one or the other, but some, like Florida Kingsnakes, have both Axanthic and Anery. Usually, though, you do wind up with a grayscale-looking snake.

westridge · January 13, 2021, 6:33pm

There is an additional recessive trait in Emory’s call Silverleaf.

westridge · January 13, 2021, 6:34pm

Two more morphs in obsoleta are Lemon and Moonshine. I believe both are recessive.

westridge · January 13, 2021, 6:45pm

I’m sorry, Silverleaf is a trait in Kitsatchie, not Emory’s

eaglereptiles · January 13, 2021, 6:52pm

Thank you so much guys, this is incredible.

Are Kitsatcies classified as a rat snake?

When I Google it it comes up with “Slowinski’s corn snake”

Do you know if they are rat or corns?

westridge · January 13, 2021, 6:58pm

Corn snakes are a type of ratsnake, as are Kitsachie. They used to be classified as the same species, along with Emory’s. To the best of my knowledge, all are now separate species.

halohelix · January 13, 2021, 7:45pm

Yep, corns are also known as red rats in some places.

westridge · January 13, 2021, 9:32pm

Not sure if a full list of ratsnake species is wanted, but there are fairly accurate lists of New World and Old World ratsnake species on the “ratsnake” page on Wikipedia. The list at the top of this thread is a fraction of what is out there. With ratsnakes, having different categories for different species is a lot more important than developing a list of morphs.

erie-herps · January 13, 2021, 10:05pm

What if for ratsnakes, instead of putting every single species of rat snake, we did species as morphs, kind of like import for ball pythons, so if someone had an albino black rat snake then they would list morphs as albino, and Black Rat Snake.

ashleyraeanne · January 13, 2021, 11:53pm

Not sure if anyone else has said anything about it, but most New World (mainly North American) rat snakes are no longer in the Genus Elaphe even though many breeders still think they are. They are in the Genus Pantherophis as they were found not to be as closely related to old world rat snakes as we first thought.

Black rat snake aka Eastern rat snake: Pantherophis alleghaniensis
Gray rat snake: Pantherophis spiloides
Yellow rat snake: Pantherophis alleghaniensis (quadrivittata is rarely used now due to it just being a color/pattern variation of the Eastern rat snake)
Everglade ratsnake: Pantherophis alleghaniensis (rossalleni rarely used on as well because also Eastern rat snake)
Baird’s ratsnake: Pantherophis bairdi
Emory ratsnake AKA Great Plains ratsnake: Pantherophis emoryi
Texas ratsnake: Pantherophis obsoleta lindheimeri
Greenish rat snake (mix between black ratsnake and yellow ratsnake locals): Pantherophis alleghaniensis
Fox snake: Pantherophis vulpinus
Corn snake: Pantherophis guttatus
Western Green rat snake: Senticolis triaspis

That is all I can remember for now, but there are of course more. If you need me to look into more of the New world rats I would be glad to.

ashleyraeanne · January 14, 2021, 11:01pm

Striped is a trait in black rat snakes. I have an albino striped black rat female, and I have seen just striped for sale once (not on MM). I still don’t know if it is recessive, dom, or inc-dom but I don’t believe this just a line bred trait from what I have seen. Still working on finding someone that knows these things.

Brindle is another trait in black rat snakes. I know Bartley Reptiles on MM works with them, but I am not sure if they have a profile on these forums just yet. They may also know about the striped trait as they work with more black rat snake morphs.

hare_hollow_farm · January 15, 2021, 3:37am

Kunashir island is a locality of climacophora. There’s mainland ones as well. Their common name should just be Japanese Ratsnake.
You would need a separate morph amel, calico, etc for each relevant species. There’s an independently occurring line of amel in a lot of these so you’ll need a amel for each species. On top of the ones that have other morphs as well axanthic in mandarians, melanistic in russians, etc

I would probably have two super categories: old world and new world and then drill down from there. Maybe start with the new world since they’re more common?

eaglereptiles · January 25, 2021, 10:58am

The above list of traits has been updated with what I have been able to find across the internet.
Does anyone know of any that are missing?

ashleyraeanne · August 17, 2021, 7:54pm

Well, there are already issues with the Eastern rat snakes. There are rat snakes that are not Easterns in the category and Eastern rats that aren’t in the right category lol.