How do you tell...

[QuietLunatic]

the sex of a snake? Blatant noob question, I know, but it's not something that has ever been an issue for me. When I encounter a snake in my garden, it gets oohed and aahed over, and usually brought inside for the kids to look at, and then released in my yard again, away from the lawn mower or other yard tool I was using when I found the snake. However, I'm thinking it's a good thing to know when I go looking for a pet.

[Boots]

The sex of a snake can be determined by Visual appearance, probing or popping.

The least stressful for the snake is visual appearance since you are not really doing anything physical to the snake. Male snakes tend to have a thicker tail base where the reproductive organs are. As with anything practice you should be able to determine the sex of a snake using the visual method.

The other way is by probing the snake, which is just like it sounds. A probe is inserted into the hemipenial pocket at about the mid-line and slowly pushed towards the tail. In the female snake you will encounter resistance at a depth of about 2 or 3 scales, while in the male the probe will not encounter the same resistance till after the 6th. This method is not recommended for the novice, and should only be attempted by people who have been trained. Since this method could easily harm the snake if you are too forceful.

Seems I forgot to meantion popping. Thanks to Daniel for the link ( see next post). It gives a better explaination then I could.

Jason

[Daniel]

Perhaps this can help you understanding the things Boots is talking about:

http://www.gartersnake.de/Geschlechtsbestimmungeng.html

Best wishes,

Daniel