How to 'pop' snakes?

[d_virginiana]

If my breeding plans work this year, I'm hopefully going to have a lot of baby snakes that need to be definitively sexed. The problem is I have no idea how to do this safely.
I do have access to a good herp vet, but the downside is I don't believe they have a lot of experience with garters specifically. They've treated my snakes in the past though, and they're trustworthy.
I'm pretty good at tail-shape sexing (got both of my blacknecks correct last year!) but I feel like that's not what people want to base a purchase off of.

So how do you guys sex litters before selling them, and where did you learn to do it safely?

[guidofatherof5]

I don't do it. I'm too worried I'll hurt the little one.

[d_virginiana]

That's what I'm worried about as well... Do you sex them just visually then? Do you generally mention that when you sell? I just don't want to go about it the wrong way. I would get the herp vet to do it, but I worry that they probably have never treated something small as a baby garter.

lol I know this is kind of early, but my schedule tends to go from having nothing to do to being insanely busy, so I want to plan out every aspect that I can ahead of time.

[Eddie]

Its scary at first but once you get the touch its so easy you won't believe it! Just a firm grip on the baby, which does not take much. then slide your finger nail upwards from just under the vent. Little protrusions at the left or right of the vent and you have a male. just a dead middle opening and its a girl. You need to at least see a male to understand what you are looking at ( in my opinion )
Good luck!!

[d_virginiana]

Thanks for the advice; I might feel okay doing it if someone showed me in person, but I would feel really bad if a baby snake got hurt because I wasn't 100% sure what I was doing.

[Tommytradix]

when i pop i seem to get all female lol my visual inspection has been right 100% on radix and easterns only. concinnus all look the same to me from birth so i dont garentee sex unless they are over 3 months then theres a definite difference. im also afraid to hurt the lil scrubs their so delicate at birth lol

[Tommytradix]

theres 3 breeders in my area and none know how to accurately pop a snake lol

[Zdravko092368]

What about probing garters? Does anyone do that or is it too dangerous?

[BLUESIRTALIS]

it would be ok to probe larger garters, but it's not necessary as larger garters are easy to sex visually. I pop all my babies and have been 99% accurate! It's very easy and rather safe to pop them once you get the feel of it just a gentle roll of the thumb and if it's a male it will pop, lol! They'll all pop a little musk on you lol! You gotta remember snakes are tough critters made to handle rough terrain and as long as your gentle you shouldn't hurt them as it takes very little pressure. It's really more about technique on how you roll your finger. Now I never pop snakes over a couple months old as they start to gain more control and it gets harder on them. I will say this it is almost impossible to visually sex babies as some that look female with a nice taper can still be male and will start to show later on. Hope this helps!