Spurs on the butt

When I bought my ball from the petstore, they said it was a female. We hmm'd and haa'd over this because the salesgirl based it on the size of the snake's tail, and really, what was there to compare it to?

Weeks later, I discovered my snake had spurs on either side of the butt. I took that to mean it is in fact a boy.

Is this reliable?

Not at all. I have a female with especially large spurs, and a male with hardly any at all, yet another male who only has one spur....'n' everything in between. The only sure way you can tell the gender of your BP is to pop it or probe it.

1) You can't tell by tail size on ball pythons

2) Males and females have spurs.

You need to either probe or pop to determine the sex. :)

Males and Females both have spurs. You need to probe it to find out or have someone experienced in popping. I wouldn't try to pop yourself because you could hurt the snake if it isn't done right.

Yeah, I totally didn't want to try and pop it myself! I watched a couple videos, and then poked around at his butt a little bit, and it would have taken way more force than I was comfortable applying myself without experience!~

Thanks everyone! I will look into getting him properly sexed!

Some vets will sex them for you. If you know of a reptile show coming to your area soon, some of the breeders there will sex them for free.