reservations about the sex of bought BP

I got one of my BPs at a reptile expo from a local breeder. The snake is the one in my profile picture and she was marketed as a female. The expo was in march or april and she was less than a year old but not by much (born in june or july of last year). I have reserves about the gender because he had a set of female and male from the same clutch that looked pretty similar and at the expo he tried popping her to show that she had no hemipenes. He did it fairly quick but i didnt see any but he did it because he was worried in setting them out for display he switched them up accidentally. He seemd to know what he was talking about, though and having never bought a young snake i kind of took his word for it because he tried popping there. I have since learned that males can resist popping past 6 months, especially on a short quick one like he did. At the next expo that was two weekends ago I stopped by his booth to look at a black head and i glanced at the rest of his collection (it was near the end and I was with others who were moving on) and I swear he was marketing the sibling of my baby as a female (coulda been a display case next to the sibling or a snake that looked sorta like it, he had some butter calico pins and some reg pins etc., but i coulda swore it was the sibling). This got me extremely worried because one of the reasons i got her was to breed her to my male in the future. I didn't see the butter pin in the available on the website meaning he probably sold the other one so i am out of luck in terms of trying to noninvasively sex the snake. My questions are these, is it still safe to pop the snake at a little under a year? I have read that it is not because their muslces develop enough to need to use some force that could injure in order to get the hemipenes out and that it has an alright possibility of getting a false negative on the hemipenes. I also have never popped a snake myself since i bought my other ball at adult age and he is a proven breeder and rescued my boa and dont plan on breeding her I never needed to. I also have the option of probing but i am very wary of doing this because of my inexperience. Do you think this would be something i could do/ could try or should I try to find someone to sex my snake for me? Im not sure i trust the pet stores around her other than one in Lawrence (about 50 min drive) to do it. Should i put an add in the KC Reptile classifieds or what?

I've second and third-guessed myself on popping.

I have a local expert who will double-check mine for me in exchange for a six-pack of his favorite adult beverage.

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Originally Posted by Soord

I have reserves about the gender because he had a set of female and male from the same clutch that looked pretty similar and at the expo

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I should mention that he marketed them as "twins" which i take as them coming from the same egg

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Originally Posted by bcr229

I've second and third-guessed myself on popping.

I have a local expert who will double-check mine for me in exchange for a six-pack of his favorite adult beverage.

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Haha need to find me that type of arrangement. Especially since I'm going to start shelling out a little more $$ in the nearish future to get the snakes I want.

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I have very little faith in popping mostly because I suck at it. A snake can be obviously male when popped but in my opinion could still be a male if it was not done correctly. When I buy a snake in person unless it is obviously a male I have them probed and I witness the probing. If the seller is unwilling to probe I do not buy the animal. On my own stock I do not pop. I am much more comfortable getting some help and probing the animal myself.

You should be taught to do either technique by someone that is experienced. You do not want to learn to do by trial and error because the animal could be hurt.

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Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

I have very little faith in popping mostly because I suck at it. A snake can be obviously male when popped but in my opinion could still be a male if it was not done correctly. When I buy a snake in person unless it is obviously a male I have them probed and I witness the probing. If the seller is unwilling to probe I do not buy the animal. On my own stock I do not pop. I am much more comfortable getting some help and probing the animal myself.

You should be taught to do either technique by someone that is experienced. You do not want to learn to do by trial and error because the animal could be hurt.

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Thanks for the advice. This has definitely been a learning experience. I also learned the right questions to ask AFTER I bought the snake too but thankfully she has been eating and shedding fine and I know her parents and birth date from creeping the guy's website

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Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

I have very little faith in popping mostly because I suck at it. A snake can be obviously male when popped but in my opinion could still be a male if it was not done correctly. When I buy a snake in person unless it is obviously a male I have them probed and I witness the probing. If the seller is unwilling to probe I do not buy the animal. On my own stock I do not pop. I am much more comfortable getting some help and probing the animal myself.

You should be taught to do either technique by someone that is experienced. You do not want to learn to do by trial and error because the animal could be hurt.

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Also is there some type of meetup or fb group that has "mentor" breeders? Or will I have to go network at the next reptile expo?

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There is a FB group called basement ball python breeders. I've met some good folks on there. Every page has the good and the bad though... so just be careful.


IF this guy was a local breeder, take your snake back and talk to him, see if he will check it again. If he's a good breeder, maybe he'll help you out.

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Originally Posted by LittleTreeGuy

There is a FB group called basement ball python breeders. I've met some good folks on there. Every page has the good and the bad though... so just be careful.


IF this guy was a local breeder, take your snake back and talk to him, see if he will check it again. If he's a good breeder, maybe he'll help you out.

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He actually saw this post and contacted me and we worked something out. He even offered to trade for the female if he sexed wrong

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I would suggest getting a probe kit and probing to make sure. There are plenty of videos and tutorials out there it is really very easy especially with such a large, thick tailed snake like a ball python. This is how I learned and I never had anybody show me in person. Was this ideal? Maybe not, but I didn't have anyone around to show me and I feel as long as you are very gentle and keep a firm grip on the tail you shouldn't have a problem. I don't claim to be an expert at probing and I still don't feel comfortable doing the really small snakes like small carpets and such but with ball pythons it's really very easy. I could never get the hang of popping but probing I caught on to very quick.

I have the same concern about all my snakes, I've never popped them and haven't probed them myself either. I guess at this point for me it doesn't really matter that much now that I have 16 snakes and my collection is growing, plenty of males and females to mix things up to get some interesting babies even if a few have been sexed wrong. The more snakes you get the more you can pick and choose from a variety of animals. I'm actually planning on having a mix of about half and half males and females. I know a male can breed several females but I'd like to mix things up year after year and not be stuck with the same few males for my females.

Ok.... What do you want us to do about it?

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Originally Posted by stickyalvinroll

Ok.... What do you want us to do about it?

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Nothing.... I asked questions about popping and probing, I was going to handle if I got the wrong snake. or did you not read the whole post?

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There's videos to teach you how to probe. Way better than reading instructions on such a delicate process. or did you not think about that ?

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Originally Posted by stickyalvinroll

There's videos to teach you how to probe. Way better than reading instructions on such a delicate process. or did you not think about that ?

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Okay dude, first of all this is a forum where people ask questions and other people answer. I obviously have thought of watching videos and have watched both popping and probing videos but I came here to get advice that videos don't show you. I like to be extremely well informed on things and was getting other people's opinions on the situation in what I assumed was a friendly space. I DIDNT come here to get completely non-helpful criticisms and non answers in the form of "what are we going to do about it". Obviously you aren't doing anything since you live in Texas and I live in KC, but at the same time I and other breeders aren't helping you with the dry market question you asked neh? This is a website where we share experiences and advice to others, which is what I was asking for. I don't see why you are coming at me for asking this question and giving background about it. It is pretty easy to ignore something that you have no stake in so I would highly recommend doing so next time.

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Originally Posted by stickyalvinroll

There's videos to teach you how to probe. Way better than reading instructions on such a delicate process. or did you not think about that ?

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Why're you being so rude? Nothing wrong with asking for advice.

He can say "or did you not read the whole post" but when I say "or you haven't thought about that" all of a sudden it's rude.

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Originally Posted by Soord

He actually saw this post and contacted me and we worked something out. He even offered to trade for the female if he sexed wrong

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That's awesome, and says a lot about the person. Those are the kind of people you want to deal with, for sure. I've talked to a few breeders at expos about the popping and probing and if they have time, they generally willing to help you out. Hopefully you'll be able to find someone near you that maybe you can visit and hang out with to get some good hands-on experience and some pointers. Best of luck!

Hahaha

Ok so what do you want us to do about it


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Originally Posted by stickyalvinroll

He can say "or did you not read the whole post" but when I say "or you haven't thought about that" all of a sudden it's rude.

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Touche, but I was pretty frustrated with your first answer. I would say most of the posts on here don't require you doing anything and to just give advice and to come onto a post, which asks questions about popping and probing and added back story and reason I'm posting, just to post "what do you want us to do" is extremely unhelpful. I'm not sure if you thought I was asking one of you to drive to kc and sex my snake for me but I wasn't. It wasn't a call to action I was asking if it's safe to pop, if I should probe, or if I should find someone. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about my intentions in the first place

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Originally Posted by LittleTreeGuy

That's awesome, and says a lot about the person. Those are the kind of people you want to deal with, for sure. I've talked to a few breeders at expos about the popping and probing and if they have time, they generally willing to help you out. Hopefully you'll be able to find someone near you that maybe you can visit and hang out with to get some good hands-on experience and some pointers. Best of luck!

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Thanks! And yeah he is pretty passionate about this stuff and if he gave me the wrong one it's definitely an honest mistake

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