Is it a boy or girl?

[pumba]

Greetings all from the amature:

I was just wondering something, (By the way, you will all get to know me as the one that asks foolish questions, so standby) any way, as I was saying, I have a question about the sex of my snake. How in the world do you tell wether blue or pink cloths are appropriate. (by the way the cloths thing is a joke) but for real, how do you know. I realize it is not necessary to name the snake, I mean he/she will not come running when you call for him/her, but then again, I am the wierd type that likes to have a name for the pet, and I would rather not have the boy named sue if you know what I mean.

Thanks

[Watever]

How do you know your child or your dog is a boy or a girl ?
you check the genital organs.

You do the same thing, but they are inside the body. So you have to use a probe for this. Only expert in this should do it. Do not attemps this if you do not know how, you will hurt the snake.

[Adam_Wysocki]

From Ball Python Manual (The Herpetocultural Library. Series 300) 1997 by Philippe De Vosjoli, Phillipe Devosjoli, Roger Klingenberg, Barkers ...

"Adult ball pythons are best sexed by introducing a smooth, blunt, slender, and lubricated probe into the cloaca; by pushing the probe against the posterior wall of the cloaca, on can determine if it can be freely by gently pushed into the base of the tail. The probe can be deeply inserted into the base of the tail of males, passing inside the inverted hemipenis. The sexes can be distinguished by the probe passing deeper into the base of the tail of a male than into that of a female. A sexing probe will pass into the tail of male ball python a distance spanning eight to ten subcaudal scales, while it typically can be inserted only a distance of two to four subcaudals in female snakes."

Done incorrectly, probing can cause damage and should only be attempted by someone with prior experience.

Hope this helps.

-adam

[pumba]

So what yall are saying is don't worry about it...lol... Don't worry, I will not be probing the poor little fella's tail any time soon or at all... Yikes! that sounds like it would suck a bit for him/her. I guess I will just go ahead and assume for the name or use something like terry, or pat, or tracy, or something non gender spacific. lol. I do appreciate the help. Thanks alot for the info.


Later
Pumba

[lil_southern]

I was told that females have rounded spers at the anal flap and males have pointed spers... Is this true or just another myth???
if its true then i have a 2 ft female and a brand new 2 month old male........I REALLY HOPE THIS IS TRUE ....I GOT HIM FOR BREEDIG TO HER.

[kavmon]

probing or popping are the best two ways to sex a snake. if you need a normal male for breeding you should have no problem finding one cheap or free.



vaughn

[pumba]

Here is another for ya. Is one more comon than the other. You know like with many other animals. Take dogs for instance, it seems that out of a litter of 8 there will be only one or two males in the bunch the rest female. Or is it just the luck of the draw?

[doobysnack]

ok i got two red tail boas and only one has spurs does that mean the one with spurs is a boy and the other is a girl

[frankykeno]

Pumba, if you really want to know you can either find a snake breeder somewhat locally that knows his or her stuff enough to reliably sex your snake for you (careful tho, you don't want some idiot who says they know....ya know LOL) or find a vet that has experience sexing snakes. Our vet here charges only $50.00 for a health check and sexing so I'm thinking that's pretty reasonable all things considered. Our young b.p. is Baby-for-now until the vet visit.

I'd love to learn how to probe correctly and safely, unfortunately I haven't found anyone locally that could teach me and I'd expect my vet won't want to.

Hey, don't worry about questions being "foolish". When we were first part of this forum I posted so many questions I actually asked a site administrator privately if I was a "bother" to the forum members and was assured it was okay and showed my husband and I were striving to be reasonable new snake owners. It's only "foolish" to let your snake pay the price for things that could have been corrected with a simple question to the experienced folks here I think.


~~Joanna~~

[Adam_Wysocki]

I was told that females have rounded spers at the anal flap and males have pointed spers... Is this true or just another myth???
if its true then i have a 2 ft female and a brand new 2 month old male........I REALLY HOPE THIS IS TRUE ....I GOT HIM FOR BREEDIG TO HER.

Spur size and/or shape is in NO WAY a reliable method for sexing ball pythons.

-adam