Sexing Corn Snakes

[Jay_Bunny]

When my corn snakes were just babies, I had them sexed by a local reptile shop. While the guy is sexing the snakes, he was talking to someone else. During their conversation he states "yea, sometimes I don't know the answer, so I just make stuff up." I'm thinking....great. This guy is sexing my snakes and for all I know, he's just making it up. So I had plans to bring them back to be sexed on a day he wasn't working. Fastforward over a year and I finally have a chance to bring them in. Now the guy before was popping them and gave me the sexes of...

Anery - Female
Amel - Female
Snow - Male
Normal - Female

I took them back and had a different person sex them (he no longer works there) and she probed. Her results were...

Anery - Female
Amel - Male
Snow - Female
Normal - Male

I plan on getting my own probe set at the next reptile show if they have them available and sex these guys myself. What is the standard number of scales when probing that indicate a male or female? How reliable is this? I've used tail tapering to sex corn snakes before. It was later confirmed with probing. An example is my adult snow corn. When I bought her the guy said she was too small to sex and to come back later. Several months later I had her popped and probed and he said its possible she was a female but he couldn't be certain because she went to a certain number of scales (for the life of me I can't remember). He said to watch her tail and see how it tapers. As she grew her tail tapered very quickly so she was guessed to be female. Later she was probed again and the man confirmed she was female. Again, I do not know how many scales but I remember that he stated when she was younger and was probed, it went in to the length that is directly at the upper range for females and lower range for males so he couldn't be certain.

[Cameron Lamb Exotics]

I would suggest bringing a snake or two to the show and have them show you how to probe them before taking home a set if you dont already know how to.

[Dracoluna]

Depending on how big they are, I'd still recommend popping over probing. Corns are pretty easy to pop til a few years old. If there is a corn breeder in the area, contact them and they can show you how. It's actually really easy to learn how and once you do a couple, you'll realize it's no big deal.

[Jay_Bunny]

I know how to probe. I used to own a set of probes a few years ago but during a move they got lost. I can pop a young ball python pretty easily now, but I tried on the corn snakes and the little bugger was so difficult.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

Also with smaller colubrids you can see the hemipenes of the males. It would appear as two lines on either side of the vent on the belly running toward the tail, that are a bit raised compared to the rest of the tail. You can often palpitate and feel them too. Look closely at the ones that are supposed to be females. If their tail area on the belly is narrower with no ridges and have shorter tails they likely are female. Since you have four of them it may be easy to visually tell them apart depending on age. I'd still recommend learning how to probe though.


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[Dracoluna]

I know how to probe. I used to own a set of probes a few years ago but during a move they got lost. I can pop a young ball python pretty easily now, but I tried on the corn snakes and the little bugger was so difficult.

They can get a little squirmy but they actually take less pressure than a ball does to pop. As for number of scales, etc, for a 3 ft. long adult, females would only go in about 5-10 mm but a male would be 40-70 mm. If nothing else. just use common sense. There is a big difference between a female and male where corns are concerned. If you have one you're certain is a girl, base the others on that.