gender

Probing and "popping" are the accurate ways to determine sex. I DO NOT recommend a novice try and probe, without getting training from a professional, you can damage the internal tissue. That being said, here is a link to an informative site about Probing Popping:

http://www.pythons.com/probing.html

That site is a bit confusing. They stated that popping was "safer" than probing, but I have always heard that the opposite is true. In any case, I guess it's better for a professional to do it, rather than someone who has never done it; or at least watch a pro do it before you attempt it yourself.

I guess you could say popping is technically safer than probing. If you push too hard probing you could go too deep and puncture membranes.

Popping is pretty easy and reliable to do on hatchling ball pythons. Sometimes males can trick you, but you just have get a good technique. With older ball pythons probing is the best way.

All in all, probing is the most reliable way of determining the sex of a ball python of any age. But both methods can be subject to error.

-adam