When sexing goes bad?

I am looking for points of reference on popping babies. I have seen the youtube vids and not seen any that actually show people messing up or what it looks like when you squeeze too hard. I want to make sure we don't go too far or hurt the animal in any way. Looking for videos, pics or stories about what happened and aftercare. Not looking for instructions on how to sex.

If you go too hard you will either break their spine or cause a prolapse.

You WILL know when you messed up with popping

Thx Rich. I just popped my 4 month old and everything was fine. Those are some little things are pretty hard to see so I can imagine what it will be like with something 1/3 his size, but I think we got it down.....now to get a female to try it on.

As for hurting the snake, as long as you stop once it pops I think all will be good, correct?

my snake didnt even realize i was popping him, no acknowledgement what so ever

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Originally Posted by cmack91

my snake didnt even realize i was popping him, no acknowledgement what so ever

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Mine either....just kept lookin around for a place to go.

Thou mine didn't really pop out like I saw in the vids...more like just red dots. Did I just not push enough or what?

probably, i didnt actually pop the hemipines all the way out because i was supprised by the amount of pressure it took, but it was clearly male and not female

This may or may not help you guys but I dont actually put much pressure on them... i roll the tail like a tube of toothpaste and it doesnt take much pressure... it is hard if you just push down, but if you start below the vent and roll ur thumb back upwards towards the vent they will pop out with verry little pressure.... I have popped 9ft retics this way and it does get harder with size but shouldnt be to bad

I have a few males that can not be popped as they got older. No matter if your light pressure or more pressure. Males as they age can hold it in and when you realize that, best not to pop them to minimize injury

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Originally Posted by jjmitchell

This may or may not help you guys but I dont actually put much pressure on them... i roll the tail like a tube of toothpaste and it doesnt take much pressure... it is hard if you just push down, but if you start below the vent and roll ur thumb back upwards towards the vent they will pop out with verry little pressure.... I have popped 9ft retics this way and it does get harder with size but shouldnt be to bad

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i rolled mine too, but he seemed to be flexing himself pretty good, so i had to fight the muscles too, and hes over 5yrs too, so i imagine that would make it harder

hmmmm,,,, why not just probe? if your not afraid to squeeze one until its insides pops out, surley your not afraid to probe...
spooky

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Originally Posted by mr.spooky

hmmmm,,,, why not just probe? if your not afraid to squeeze one until its insides pops out, surley your not afraid to probe...
spooky

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Probing has been proven to be semi accurate. And more injuries have occurred from probing than ive seen from popping

i cant argue....... iv only probed.. maby one day ill feel more comfortable squeezing a snake till its junk comes out. please dont get me wrong, but me being a novice with the whole thing,, i persionally feel safer with the probe.
i guess that it could go both ways though,,, some people might push the probe wishing it would go further,, and some might squeeze the snake harder, trying to see something that there not even sure what there looking for.
one day i might pop, but im not ready yet.
thanks
spooky

I was afraid of harming my snakes when i tried to pop them so i waited till they got a little bigger then i probed them, was still scared when i did that but it wasnt as bad as i orginally thought. They fought alot more from trying to get popped then probed in my experience.
But always make sure you know what your doing before u go willy nilly with a probe and popping, dont want to buy an expensive snake and make it sterile by screwing it up.

Heather did a piece on popping hatchlings vs. older snakes last month:

http://heathersherpsblog.blogspot.co...l-pythons.html

For me, doing it wrong results in a lot of false negatives---snakes incorrectly sexed as female. I wound up taking my hatchlings first to my local reptile store, where they charge $5 per snake for sexing. They came up with 3 males and 2 females by probing.

Then I took them to the local herp vet, who probed them again, and came up with 3.2 for the exact same snakes. He went on to pop all the males to show me their little baby hemipenes---OBVIOUSLY boys. But I still can't pop them correctly at home! And I'm afraid I'll hurt the little guys, so I've given it up for now.

But I have no problem popping my juvenile (2010 and earlier) boys. I guess they're just all exhibitionists?