Popping, what am I doing wrong?

[Bettacreek]

I watched several videos on popping young balls as well as cornsnakes. I've done everything they show in the videos, but cannot get ANYTHING. I haven't tried it on the balls yet (just shipped in, I don't want to kill them with stress), but my corn is an easy handler, and the corn popping videos made corns seem easier than the balls anyways. I've tried coming from way down on the tail, I've tried adding slightly more pressure, etc, but I don't see anything. My corn is supposed to be a male, but even if he's not, I should at least get some type of flesh coming from the cloaca, and I'm not. So, any ideas?

[mooingtricycle]

are you putting firm ( be careful not to break the spine, but dont be so soft that you dont POP them efficiently) pressure from about halfway up towards the head FROM the tip of the tail, TO the vent?

Post photos of how you are doing it. I will take photos now to show you how to pop the baby balls.

If you dont feel you can do this successfully, Please, have your herp vet, or a friend experienced in the practice help you. You absolutely can injure your snakes doing it the incorrect way.

[Dave763]

Just check out all the vids on youtube. Search Ralph Davis Popping. I think 8ball pythons has a vid too.
I'm sure pics won't help much...go watch the videos..again.
Just be careful not to bend them backwards, I have heard that you can break their spine.

[mooingtricycle]

Again, Firm pressure, but not so much to hurt the snake.
This is how i sex my animals, and am successful. You dont really need to put much oomph behind it at all. Steady constant pressure will evert the hemipenis if its a male, and if its a female, you will see fleshy white. and only a very minimal amount will evert.

I do not recommend inexperienced people to practice this unless they know the risks of harm to their animals, and i urge anyone looking to do this, to learn from an experienced person or herp vet first.


Press from where the arrow points TO the vent. Stopping just before the vent. Keep firm pressure.

[kc261]

One thing that might help is to ask someone to pretend they are trying to pop your finger or thumb, so you get an idea how much pressure to use. You might be surprised at how little pressure is necessary.

[Bettacreek]

Ok, thanks guys. I'm going to find somebody around here who knows what they're doing so they can show me the exact pressure to use and such.

[Somed00d]

I tried many times to pop a few hatchlings. Then a pro showed me and I can do it easily. My biggest problem was with my thumb position. It's hard to explain just look very closely at the videos and see how the thumb is positioned. I was watching it done in front of me and couldn't even tell how I was doing it wrong lol.