Tips for palpating.

[Jonas@Balls2TheWall]

As you can see its late and I'm kinda bored so I decided to make this thread to maybe help out some members who might have a hard time palpating. Palpating is one of the things that took me the longest to master in this hobby. I know I am not alone, I have friends that have been in the snake hobby for years and they still don't feel comfortable palpating. Palpating can be an extremely useful technique and one that will without a doubt make you a better "breeder".

- When you are palpating it is very important that the snake is relaxed. Handle her until she is calm and easily stretched out. Many people underestimate the importance of this, if the snake is tensing up when you apply pressure with your fingers you wont get a proper feel.

- Dont wait till you think your in the right area to start putting down pressure, put pressure down with your finger as soon as you can and let the snakes movement bring the follicles towards your finger.

- Use only your index finger and thumb to apply pressure, The thumb does the pushing and the index finger does the feeling. This is one of the mistakes I was making, I was trying to feel follicles with all 4 fingers on the belly instead of just one.

For those of you that are completely unfamiliar with palpating here is a good video to show the technique you will be applying these tips to: http://youtu.be/TlX9y6wyrsw. Anyway, feel free to add any tips of your own and hopefully this helps someone.