Hello all. Ive been researching ball python breeding for about a year and a half now. I decided it was finally time to have my first clutch next season, and I decided it was finally time to learn how to probe. I just bought my kit from LLL reptiles and started researching how to probe. I watched a few videos(one from iron balls and one from kobylkas pro tips) and started looking for forum posts to get any extra tips I may need, and every single person said you have to be taught how one on one y someone who has either training a lot of experience or both and that learning on my own through means of the internet could injure and kill my snake. I could understNd why is a hemepene or the females barrier were to be ruptures.

Anyway, the kit that I bought is a set of 8 rods all with rubber ball tips so as to not injure the snake and from what I understand you need to insert it incredibly gently and if met with ANY resistance stop and measire how many scale..

My problem is that I dont know of anyone who may be able to teach me hands on. My local snake show is an hour away and I work every saturday. The day that it takes place. I dont have Ny friends in the hobby. The biggest local breeder I know of is also an hour away from me, and I need to be BLe to determine the gender of my snakes with 100% certainty. The only thing I can think to do is to attempt self teaching while excersizing extreme caution. Has anyome succeeded in teaching themselves to probe and in reality with my tools specifically what are the odds of an injury actually occuring if I use water based lubricant, a smaller than necessary rod, and apply a very very minimal amoint of force while inserting the rod (toward the tip of the tail on either the left or roght side never the center) of the cloaca?

Thanks for reading guys..IF you are against me attempting fo self teach please suggest an alternative! I know that it isnt ideal but my options appear to be very few.