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  1. #1
    BPnet Veteran FollowTheSun's Avatar
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    Bubblegum vs. Albino

    I have an albino black ratsnake. I was looking up photos of adult versions of my snake to see how she might look as she grows into an adult. I have seen both bubblegums and albinos looking pretty much the same-- what's the difference, if any?
    2 BP's, one ratsnake, 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 small caged birds, 7 chickens, and a toddler in a pear tree

  2. #2
    Bogertophis's Avatar
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    I'll take Kathy Love's word for it in the post below from Cornsnakes.com forum- I wasn't sure what exactly was meant by "Bubblegum" either, & I used to breed "albino" (amelanistic) black rat snakes that ranged from creamy off-white & various shades of peach to deeper orange patterns. FYI- "glades" is short for Everglades rat snake, orange as adults- so "Bubblegums" are a blended rat snake- a mix of black, yellow & Everglades rat snakes...all similar snakes from different areas that have no trouble breeding if brought together, whereas the snakes I had were all "black" rat snakes selectively bred for "amelanistic" & "albino". Wild black rat snakes in some areas naturally have red-orange "hidden" by their black color- unseen until the genes for albino or amel. are selected for. No way to know for sure what your snake is...you need info from the breeder as to the genetics. I used to have (& raised) some Everglades rat snakes too, they are ALL great pets, IMO. Of course, I might be prejudiced...

    The term albino gets thrown around quite a bit, but originally meant a lack of pigment, whereas "amelanism" is the lack of the dark pigment, melanin, meaning other colors can still be there. Whatever your snake is, she's pretty & awesome...what more do you need to know?

    04-15-2011, 11:20 PM #7
    kathylove As far as I know, Gino got all of his bubblegum rat snakes (including the striped gene) from me. The striped actually originated from a wild caught baby glades / yellow rat caught in Belle Glade in 1979 that we raised and later proved out.

    Bubblegums ARE black rats - with some yellow and glades thrown in. Mine were more glades / yellow than black for the most part. But a particular specimen COULD be mostly black rat, or mostly yellow or glades, depending on what breeders have done with the line recently. They are quite variable. Pure black rat amels are also quite variable. Most of my bubblegums had a somewhat different color, so I suspect that this one is either pure black rat, or has more black rat than most of my line did. BUT - it has been quite a few years since I kept them. Because they are all only subspecies of each other, somebody could have easily bred one of my bubblegums to a black rat (amel or otherwise) and is now producing animals that are far higher black rat percentage than mine were a generation or two ago.

    Basically, my guess is that it is higher percentage black rat than my bubblegums were, but that unless you do some DNA tests, there is no way to know for sure, IMO.
    Last edited by Bogertophis; 04-18-2019 at 12:59 AM.

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    FollowTheSun (04-19-2019)

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