PROBING or POPPING?

Which is the better way to sex baby ball pythons? I can't "pop" to save my life, but I've heard probing can hurt the snake. Your thoughts....

I've heard popping is definitely easiest for babies. If you aren't "good" at it I wouldn't attempt it. Have you had someone walk you through it in person or are you going by youtube videos and the such? I found it helpful to see it in person, slowly, and have the person who's experienced walk me through it.....

Babies are easy to pop, they just let it all hang out, but as Leah suggested above watch some vids, or have someone show you.

Popping is the easiest and safest way to sex babies and literally takes a few seconds to do. If you never done it before I would recommend getting someone experienced to show you

I pop em, just seems easier. I have no idea how to probe though. Not that its recommended by any means but I learned from a youtube video.

Both can cause damage if you don't know what you are doing, but young snakes are pretty easy to pop. I can't pop any of my older snakes, but I have no problem poping younger snakes. You might be able to pop a baby. I wouldn't attempt to probe without someone there to teach you.

I've watch video's, had someone show me, and tried popping and probing. I fell like I'm going to hurt them when I try to pop them, and they just will not pop. That or I have a whole bunch of females.

100% pop them.

BTW it is much harder to hurt them then most people think...

Depends. If you have the knowledge and experience necessary, probing is a more accurate bet, but for just general owners without probing experience, I definitely condone popping because it's a lot harder to hurt the animal that way.

I prefer using palpation over probing or popping to determine the sex of snakes. Palpation is easy to learn how to do, and much less invasive to the snake. I made a short video demonstrating How To Sex A Snake using the palpation method. I'm using a Brazilian Rainbow Boa, but works just as well with a Ball Python.