ball python popping. male or female?

Hi, My dads friend gave me this snake for christmas last year, His names Silva. He had lots of snakes like this one and said it was a male. When i was one youtube I seen people popping them, so I tried it with him but I dont see any hemipenes.I just live with my mom now and I dont talk to the guy anymore or I would get him to do it for me. we made a video, do you guys think he is a male?



YouTube - Silva ball python

Maybe I'm jsut blind but I didn't seen any pene's either.. a snake that big the pene's should be big enough to really see.. I mean if he's popping it right they should flick right out there.

From what I see in the video the size of the snake and the way you place your finger I say have someone pop it for you. :gj:

Your thumb (the one on the tail) is too close the the cloaca to properly invert his hemipenes in my opinion. (should there be some)

Remember that larger individual are also harder to pop, the secret is PRACTICE. :gj:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deborah

From what I see in the video the size of the snake and the way you place your finger I say have someone pop it for you. :gj:

Your thumb (the one on the tail) is too close the the cloaca to properly invert his hemipenes in my opinion. (should there be some)

Remember that larger individual are also harder to pop, the secret is PRACTICE. :gj:

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okay thanks, maybe ill try again later tonight with my one finger further down his tail.

I agree with deborah. There is a very good chance that you are doing it wrong. Unless you actually see the hemipenes, you will never really know if you are doing it right, unless you have more practise and you are SURE of your technique. There are a lot of people out there that will make too many assumptions on the sex of their snake when they do not have the experience to do so.
I was having trouble figuring out if my bp was a female, (which I bought it as), a few months ago. I found a local breeder that was willing to probe her for me for free and show me how it is done. Turned out to be a male. Well, no breeding for me this season......I think you should find someone in your area that knows that stuff and give them $5 to do it for you. Then you can watch and know for sure if it is male or female.

Try just holding firmly above the vent, don't press hard with your thumb like in the vid. Then slide your other thumb gently but firmly and evenly up the tail, starting halfway down it, towards the vent. The hemipenes lay inside the tail like small slim balloons and can go down 12 or 14 scales from the vent. You have to push them inside out to see them but if you press down hard above the vent, or start pushing the tail nearer than 14 scales down from the vent you could be blocking them coming out

I'd recommend watching a few more popping vids on YouTube if you're not sure but good luck and with practice, it gets much easier over time.