Palpating?

I’ve heard a lot about sexing ball pythons by palpating them. What does that mean and how is it done? Can it be done at any time?


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I think you are confused palpating is to palpate a female to monitor folicular development.

To sex a ball python you either pop (which is the action of everting the sexual organs) or probe (which is the action of inserting a probe in the cloaca towards the tail to see how deep it goes)

If you have no experience doing so, find someone to teach you

As far as I'm aware the palpation method (the bump test) only works on boas and only up to a couple years of age. I've never heard of it being done on a bp. Different definitions for different species I guess. Like Deborah said palpating a bp is feeling for eggs.

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Originally Posted by Toad37

As far as I'm aware the palpation method (the bump test) only works on boas and only up to a couple years of age. I've never heard of it being done on a bp. Different definitions for different species I guess. Like Deborah said palpating a bp is feeling for eggs.

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This. Sexing by palpation is doable-ish in ball pythons, but the window for doing it is pretty narrow. It's really from about a hatchy to ~200 grams that I can kind of tell a difference between make and female babies, then females develop what feels more or less exactly like the "speed bump." Up until then, male tails feel squishy and then solid; female tails feel solid all the way down.

But it's not reliable. Popping or probing are the ways to go, as Deborah said.