Once you get the feel for it, it's really not difficult or hard on the snakes. The problem is, until you feel how much pressure it takes to get a hatchling male to pop, you're not going to know if you're sexing a female or just not using enough pressure. They don't take a lot of pressure as hatchlings so just go gentle on each one, if you don't get any males to pop, do another round using slightly more pressure until one of the males pop. It would actually be best if you could practice on known males so you aren't trying too hard on a female that's not going to pop no matter how much pressure you apply. Now once you have a known male, just practice on him every once in a while, you'll learn the amount of pressure it takes and then you can practice on the rest. The larger males are going to take a bit more pressure and you'll need to be pretty good at it because you really need to do it just right or they can hold it in pretty good. Obviously if your checking for sperm plugs the male must be a bit larger than a hatchling but I would just start being very gentle with the hatchlings because they are easier and then when you get the feel for it, just work your way up to the larger males. Good luck!
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