reservations about the sex of bought BP

[Soord]

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?

[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.

[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

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

[Soord]

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.

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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[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.

[Soord]

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.

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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[Soord]

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.

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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[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.

[Soord]

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.

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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[piedpipper]

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.