ALWAYS have a professional double check your snake sex IDing!!

[Argentra]

As you can tell by the title...I've had some issues with incorrectly sexed snakes. To be specific, my Lavender corn snake that I just sold as a female which turned out to be a male!! The buyer confirmed this by placing 'her' with a proven female and getting pictures of the copulation!

I know nothing about sexing snakes, and got that lavender at a reptile expo from a breeder said to be 'very good'. He had the snake marked as female and even told me that he had put it with his male a few times, but got no eggs (well now we know why not). A friend of mine even tried to pop 'her' and saw nothing, so they proclaimed it female as the breeder said. I had no reason to doubt, so I sold the snake as a female. I hate having a 'black mark' on my selling record, as it were.

What this tells us is to ALWAYS have a professional breeder or vet, someone proven and experienced, check our snakes sexes! To this end, I am going to be searching the Seattle area for just such a person who might double check my 7 snakes (two of which I wish to sell) for little money or free, since I still don't have a job/income. I will be having them all checked, even though my albino male was bought from a trusted breeder who saw him produce plugs, and my female pastel was also from a trusted breeder. I don't want to get burned again...

[Aeries]

No kidding, Its a real shame to get a mixed up gender, especially when you may be paying top dollar for an animal you may have breeding plans for.

I'd love to see some sort of educational seminars at expos on this topic. It would benefit us all to have experienced breeders show newer hobbiests how to pop and probe safely to avoid situations like yours and to make sure no snakes get hurt by the process!

[Quiet Tempest]

In my experience, popping adult corns just can't be done. With adult balls it's not a problem, but with a corn nada. Maybe others can.. but it's just impossible for me.

[kellysballs]

I have mis sexed a sub adult male ball python as a female before. That is why I always probe now to double check popping. But, even that can be misleading. I just purchased a group of adult female balls. One of them is over 2500 grams and probes male. If it is a male it is the biggest one I have ever seen.

I am keeping it an putting it with my spider next year (they won't be out of quarentine in time for this year) just to double check. Hopefully it is a female that has been "popped".

[Freakie_frog]

even pro's make mistakes..

[BallsUnlimited]

mistakes happen nobody is perfect. I had bought a 1300 gram male from a local breeder which turned out to be a 1300 gram female. It sucks but now i have another het pied female to put with my pied male once he has grown a bit. lol. Deff triple check before hand if u can. Its one of those things that will happen at some point or another if you dont check yourself or have someone on hand that can actually sex the snake. Just like we have to deal with males and females off feed in the winter this is one of things we have to deal with as well.

[mr. s]

I agree. I have lost trust in almost everyone selling a snake who claims a sex.
I bought a big 1500gram female bp to start breeding..........male. After weeks of no locking, I brought it to a breeder to probe, and what d'ya know. I wasted my money. Reselling this guy has been a pain too.
I would love to learn to probe. If they had a probing seminar at a show I would for sure pay 10 bucks or something to learn how to do it myself.

[joepythons]

Ouch sorry that happened.One thing about sexing corns(its not 100% though) you can look at how the tail tapers after the vent.The females taper sooner BUT its still best to double check them by probing

[briz]

This is why I pop my snakes several times before selling them. Some will do it once and that's it what they get the first time is the sex they mark it as. I agree though never trust anyone and always check new snakes or have them checked by somebody who knows how to.

[FIEND_FO_LYFE]

Here is the vet i go to when I use a vet...


http://www.birdandexotic.com/

shes in Seattle, and Tracy B. is SUPER awesome.