# Colubrids > Pituophis >  AreMale Bull snakes typically  Larger than females?

## beaglegod

Im supposed to be getting my first taste of Pitouphis this week! A nice red baby bull snake. I asked the breeder if females are typically larger and he said yes. Im use to blood pythons and ball pythons where this is the case. However I read a fact/care sheet for bulls that said males are usually larger.

Can anyone clarify for me? There's not a ton of info on these guys like the more popular boas/pythons.

Thanks Guys.

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## redstormlax12

I think the breeder is correct, though im not huge into colubrids my any means. That being said I do believe females to tend to be slightly larger than males.

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## nor_cal1980

The owners of the reptile shop where i buy my supplies breed bull snakes. One day we were having a conversation about the species of snakes that males average larger then females. They said corn and bull snakes are a couple of the few.

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SoFarAway (05-29-2011)

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## MMReptiles

Males are typically larger in pits. I currently have a 7' female, I'd love to see a male bigger though  :Wink:

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## goopyguy

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1670/07-030.1
I know this thread is a little on the old side but I was curious whether males or females were typically larger. The guy I bought my pair of bulls from told me that females get way bigger but I have read so much conflicting information about this on the internet that it's driving me crazy. Seems like every other care sheet/info I find says something different in regards to size in male vs female pituophis. The website i pasted above seems to actually be pretty scientific and concrete about male vs female bull snake size. Seems like males and females get roughly the same size. I think many breeders may in fact have larger females simply due to the fact that they feed females a lot more so they have more baby's. I don't know this for a fact, I'm just guessing.

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## mainbutter

They aren't as extremely sexually dimorphic as some species, and feeding/breeding certainly plays into it.

Field studies seem to show that in pits, males are larger, but anecdotal captive cases as you have seen differ on occasion.

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