Great Plains Rat Questions

[wayward_son]

Just looking for some guidance really. I have a male believed to be great plains rat (Based on markings etc) He was originally sold to a friend of mine as corn as part of a breeding pair. The female has consequently died (egg bound) I am interested in potentially breeding from him. I have been doing some research and recommended breeding weights appear to be 150-200g. Is this correct? Also does the great plains rat need a full hibernation or would burmating suffice? Also I'm thinking of putting him across a normal corn female. Does anybody have any advice/an opinion on this paring?

Would be interested in any advice really. I've been doing some research but getting conflicting information.

Thanks

Pete

[gazz]

Can you post a picture of him?.

If he is Great plains rat snake and you breed him to a Red rat snake that would result in Copper corn's.

Somthing to consider pure albino Great plains rat snake.NOT Amel copper corn-AKA-Creamsicle corn a*HYBRID*.
http://www.crystalpalacereptiles.com...d=eAlbinomoryi

[wayward_son]

These are some I took about a year ago after collecting him. I don't have any more recent ones to hand.

Thanks

[gazz]

Deffo NOT a Great plains Rat snake.It's Copper corn a Red rat X Great plains a HYBRID.Best mate for him IMO would be a Creamsicle corn a Amel Red rat X Great plains a HYBRID.

[wayward_son]

Originally Posted by gazz

Deffo NOT a Great plains Rat snake.It's Copper corn a Red rat X Great plains a HYBRID.Best mate for him IMO would be a Creamsicle corn a Amel Red rat X Great plains a HYBRID.

Cheers mate.
The identification was suggested by my brother. I agreed cos I couldn't come up with anything more plausible, I'm not exactly an expert on corn variants. That should help to point me in the right direction.

Am I right with 150-200g breeding weights?

Thanks again for the help.

[gazz]

Originally Posted by wayward_son

Am I right with 150-200g breeding weights?

Thanks again for the help.

SIZE FOR BREEDING

Minimum weight for a female should be approximately 200 grams. Males can be smaller at 150 grams or more. Attempting to breed corns smaller than these sizes may lead to egg-binding and other problems.

[wayward_son]

Thanks again

Forgot to say earlier I love your sig. Very true.

[Ssthisto]

Ideally if you are breeding to a corn or creamsicle, the female should weigh a healthy (not fat) 300 grams and be in her third year.

[Natrix]

In the main rootbeers are produced as the first step towards breeding creamsicles (Great plains rat X AMEL CORN snake hybrid). This means that rootbeers are very likely to be het for amel. If you cross fellow with either an amel corn or a creamsicle you will hopefully get some nice creamsicles among the hatchlings.

As Ssthisto says, If your breeding to another creamsicle make sure she is over 300 grms and over 3 years of age. This is because the rat snake gene causes them to lay very big eggs.

Natrix

[Natrix]

Originally Posted by gazz

Deffo NOT a Great plains Rat snake.It's Copper corn a Red rat X Great plains a HYBRID.Best mate for him IMO would be a Creamsicle corn a Amel Red rat X Great plains a HYBRID.

Just for the record, as I understand it, the name Red Rat snake is a localised American name for corn snakes that has never really gained popularity with the rest of America or indeed abroad. With the other English speaking countries.
Corn snake is the popular or common name currently being used for elaphe guttata guttata (which is still the correct Latin name as the new Pantherophis name has yet to be officially recognised).
The Great plains rat snake along with a similar animal called a Dwarf Corn (elaphe guttata intermontana) has had a bit of a varied past in nomenclature terms. For a while it was called elaphe guttata emoryi and was considered a localised sub species of the corn snake but a few years back it was reclassified and given full species status becoming elaphe emoryi with the dwarf corn becoming a sub species and renamed elaphe emoryi intermontana.
Prior to the reclassification of elaphe emoryi, any cross between a Corn and GPR would of been considered a cross between to variants of the corn snake elaphe guttata making them intergrades and not hybrids. Therefore up till the GPR's reclassification it was totally appropriate to call the babies from a GPR X Corn pairing Corns.
Since the reclassification of GPR's to full species status any babies produced from the result of a pairing between a GPR and a Corn must now be considered a hybrid and can no longer carry the corn status as part of their name.
So if we want to be totally accurate when naming these animals

elaphe guttata guttata = Corn snake,
elaphe guttata emoryi = Great plains rat snake and
elaphe guttata guttata X elaphe guttata emoryi = Root beer (normal) creamsicle (amel).
elaphe emoryi intermontana = Dwarf great plains rat snake

Personally I dislike using common names as it is very easy for mistakes to be made as many species have more than one common name, many localised variations in pronunciation and an endless list of foreign common names.

Hope this helps

Natrix