Recently I got three young females who are ~4 months old or less. I was able to pop them successfully.

I have a ~four year old that was given to me with the assumption he was a male. I tried to pop "him" but have read that popping could cause a lot of harm with older snakes. "He" seems to have great control of that area and I pushed as hard as I was comfortable with and nothing happened.

I did notice though that that on each side of the vent scale that there were some small spikes. Not as big as any scale in the area but they did move freely and could stick straight out. I'm assuming that is a male who is ready to breed. Is that a safe assumption? Would a female ever have anything that looked like that?

I tried to take a picture but my iPhone couldn't focus well enough. I am running into a lot of reasons to buy a good camera... I bought my girlfriend a Canon Rebel XTi but that's not as convenient as having one completely available for my needs.

I did buy a probe set but by the time they came in I popped my young ones. I'm not sure which size probe to use on what weight snake.



I need to give credit where credit is due. I learned to pop by watching the videos Ralph Davis has on YouTube.

Popping in the case of the young ones was very easy. I am having a hard time sticking a metal instrument into their bodies where I cannot see.