Male or Female?

[DVirginiana]

I don't really comment on this forum very often, but I've been curious lately as to whether my BP might be male or female. I have no intentions of breeding 'her' and she was a rescue from a chain petstore (Got her for free because she was 'too aggressive') so I don't know the sex and can only guess at the age.

I have no experience probing or popping (do they even do popping for constrictors? I've only seen it done on colubrids) so I was wondering if it's too early to guess based on the snake's size? I know size isn't definitive, but I figured males and females probably generally grow at different rates.

My best guess is 'she' is about a year and a half old, and she's roughly 2.5 feet long, maybe closer to 3 ft. Based on that is there any way to guess male or female?

[Eric Alan]

Nope.

[DVirginiana]

Darn. Is the size difference between males/females enough to tell which is which once they're fully grown, or at least make an educated guess?

Problem is I don't know any other keepers who I would trust to probe her and I'm not about to drop money for my herp vet to do something when no one's actually sick. Eh, at least she can't hear me potentially calling her by the wrong sex.

[Eric Alan]

Like almost everything, the answer is "maybe". There are small girls and there are large boys. She'd have to be pretty huge (about twice the size she is right now) to start having the chips fall with any confidence towards being female.

[DVirginiana]

Oh well. I'm happy with 'her' regardless. I'm used to my colubrids where the females are often double if not triple the size of the males by the end of their first year. Didn't know how much that would hold true for constrictors.

[Eric Alan]

...females are often double if not triple the size of the males by the end of their first year...

Not even close in BPs.