Need a bit of adivce

[Ladybugzcrunch]

One of my pythons has been acting a little odd lately. It is been doing what I call "searching". My male snakes have been behaving like this lately and it got my thinking. A bit of background. This snake was hatched by me in 2015 and I retained"her". I popped "her" as a hatchling several times before holding"her" back. The snake is around 1700 grams and 2.5 years old. I became curious with the odd behavior and decided to ensure the sex of the animal. What I saw made my heart hit the floor for a moment. A dark red dot above the scent gland on one side (and a face full of urine but that is beside the point). I put the snake away to think how this could happen. Later, I popped the snake again, same song. Small dark red dot on one side above the scent gland about the size of a 12pt period on a sheet of paper. No sperm plugs and nothing on the other side. At this point, I decided to try to pop another snake, a male around the same size. Immidatly I got sperm plugs and stopped. I am unsure about the questionable one now. There is a good chance that I do not have the hand strength to fully invert an adult male, my hands are pretty small and weak. But, I would think I would see plugs if it was male this size and age. Could this be a small sore from a recent shed or am I doomed to have made a mistake as a hatchling. Sooo frustrated with this as this is a 6 year project and I was planning to get some results by pairing "her" this year😔.

[rufretic]

I just recently had one of my females doing the same thing, the restless male act lol, so I immediately thought the same thing, she's a boy! Even went off feed like the males and seemed to be searching for a mate. But don't give up on her yet, mine still turned out to be a female. I don't understand the odd male like behavior but these ball pythons like to play games with our minds lol. I think you should find someone experienced, with stronger hands, to also try to sex her and then also try the probe method. Sexing can be deceiving but if you have not actually seen a hemipene yet, then I would not get down about it yet. Good luck.

[Ladybugzcrunch]

I just recently had one of my females doing the same thing, the restless male act lol, so I immediately thought the same thing, she's a boy! Even went off feed like the males and seemed to be searching for a mate. But don't give up on her yet, mine still turned out to be a female. I don't understand the odd male like behavior but these ball pythons like to play games with our minds lol. I think you should find someone experienced, with stronger hands, to also try to sex her and then also try the probe method. Sexing can be deceiving but if you have not actually seen a hemipene yet, then I would not get down about it yet. Good luck.

Thanks, sometimes my proven females do this as well. I know what hemipene look like and am moderately experienced. I do admit my hand strength is pretty poor and have thus far not been able to pop a male over 1000 or so grams, not even one that is proven so. I do get lots of sperm plugs though from my other males which is why I am confused with this one. The red dot that I can see looks like it could be a very small portion of a hemipene but could also be some sort of abrasion or something? I was just wondering if anyone else had ever come across a similar scenario, dark red spot. Also, I am wondering what the next move should be if this remains a mystery. Put the unknown in with a proven female or a proven male and watch. Not locking with a proven female would not tell me much since the questionable one has never been paired.

[Trisnake]

I'd have her probed, and introduced to a known male to see how the snakes react.

I wouldn't think the red dot is an injury or abrasion, kind of hard to be injured there unless it happened while popping/probing. Possibly hermaphroditic? Would need more info before wandering down that rabbit hole.