Double Check Sexing Please

[jitami]

I keep seeing such a size difference between males and females which has really caused me to think twice about Sly. Ella, I don't really have a doubt she is female, but either Sly is huge for a male or he's not a male :o

I've included some "belly shots" and below are pics of the two of them together, including the last one that shows the differences in their head shapes. Ella is not "flattening out" being defensive there, either, that's how she always looks.

Thanks for you opinions!!! I was just looking at the pics again and he really does look male to me, but I'm planning some housing changes so need to make sure I've got this right!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/Sly/DSC02296.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/Sly/DSC02305.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/Sly/DSC02308.jpg

[jitami]

Ella's head further to the right on this one, Sly to the left
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/Sly/DSC02339.jpg

Sly top of picture on this one
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/Sly/DSC02325.jpg

Ella left, Sly right
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/Sly/DSC02231.jpg

btw, ella needs to shed bad here :rolleyes:

[Snake lover 3-25]

i'd def. say male..... how big is he?

[jitami]

He's big... they both are... but I don't have a lot to compare them to, either. I'll work on getting measurements...

[Snake lover 3-25]

how do you know ella's a girl?

[karlh]

Lovely snake. Thick tail base extending beyond the vent. I would GUESS male, but the only sure option is probing.

[adamanteus]

The first picture I would say is a male... a nice, big one. The others I reserve judgement on. (or are they all of the same snake?)

[gregmonsta]

Looks like it could be a cheeky faced male to me :rolleyes:

[jitami]

Top 3 pictures all the same snake, Sly. Bottom 3 I went back in and labled them, so you can tell who's who :) Since I see them everyday I forget that maybe they don't look all that different to everyone else :) Sorry!

Just took pics for snake measurer... results to come...

[adamanteus]

In my view, you have a pair.

[Snake lover 3-25]

yeah i'd say that too... just by ella's body mass/with.......

[Sid]

Definately a pair. In the photos Sly does appear big for a male, but he is a "he". My Eastern males normally range 18 to 20".

[crzy_kevo]

ive seen a dead eastern male about 24"

you should use that snake measuring program it works great should help with knowing the sex as well

[jitami]

Check out the measurements. I've never measured these two, so they really surprised me... I even went back and double checked pictures to make sure I didn't measure the same snake twice! Nope. Sly is a big boy... Ella, not huge, but not tiny, either.

Ella 27.152"
Sly 27.130"

[jitami]

In my view, you have a pair.

That's what I was thinking... and making plans to remedy :)

[jitami]

how do you know ella's a girl?

Just visual sexing. I actually pulled her out to do pictures and put her back without taking any. She looked really obvious to me.

[drache]

Sly looks like a male to me
I've got a pretty large marcianus male
I just took a photo of him - never done the snake measurer thing and I hope it's not too hard

[jitami]

It's very easy Rhea. Is there something in the picture with him to use as a size reference? Even the edges of the tank or something like that that you can measure? You have to enter the known measurement of the reference item and then begin measuring by clicking on head or tail and just following the curves of the snake, making little clicks along the way, to the other end :) Really easy.

[drache]

Sly looks like a male to me
I've got a pretty large marcianus male
I just tried using snake measurer, but it won't even open for me
here's a regular photo of the snake with an adult male hand for size reference, but the perspective is weird
oh well
I think he must be around 20"

[drache]

thanks for your help, Tami (she did it for me)
my marci male is 23.8 inches, 63.12 centimeters long
that means Sly must be huge

[Snake lover 3-25]

wow sly is HUGE!!!!! bigger than willow and sooty!!!! and sooty had 15 babies!!!!!:eek: very cool!:D

[drache]

yeah - I think sexing by size is a fallacy
when I picked out my marcianus babies, I was able to sex them visually without any problems, based on body shape

[jitami]

Thanks everyone for your opinion!

Even I doubted those measurements from yesterday. I took a new pic today using measuring tape as a reference and came up with 26.22 for Sly. Not sure why I got a different measurement today, but I guess it's close enough. So yeah, Sly's still a big boy :)

The downside is that he's also an older gent. I'm 99% sure he'll be 8 years old in a month or so. He could have been over a year when we found him in March of 2002, but he was definitely not a neonate. Don't know what I'm going to do when he passes :(

[gregmonsta]

My concinnus are similar ... both very long (and close to equal atm) with a slight girth difference ... yet definately male/female.

[crzy_kevo]

well 8 years old would explaing the size seeing as most snakes keep growing throughout their lifespan :D

althought this doesn mean you may only have a few years left with him :'(

[jitami]

Thanks Greg. I think it's kinda cool. The size differences in some of the other pics were just blowing me away :) And yeah, Kev, that's exactly what I was thinking, although that's also what got me here last year.... wondering about life span ;)

[drache]

I don't know that it's necessarily an indication of age
Orioski is two years old and could probably catch up with Sly in a year

[jitami]

The downside is that he's also an older gent. I'm 99% sure he'll be 8 years old in a month or so. He could have been over a year when we found him in March of 2002, but he was definitely not a neonate. Don't know what I'm going to do when he passes :(

Rhea, think you missed this part. He'll be at least 8 this spring.

[drache]

yes I did
I hope he lives a long life under your care

[jitami]

Thanks Rhea. We've been fortunate so far :)