How the heck do you sex babies?

[GartersRock]

Richard, i think you misunderstood me... I only have to pop babies. I have never had to probe a garter... that's HIGHLY unnecessary... and after a few months of age even popping is unnecessary. I don't see scale counting as necessary for me at least... because I can sex adults on sight, and babies by popping. I suppose it could be useful but I will not be sitting down with a magnifying glass counting scales on my babies when I can pop 20 of them in 2 minutes. Anything older than a few months is often accurately sexed by eye.... and even if you can't see the tail of an adult garter snake you can often tell what it is. As for neonates, I DO pop them... and always will...and here is why: Even though you can often sex them visually, it's NOT always accurate at all, and how much you can tell varies by species and individual clutch. My clutch of pugets last year was obvious. My clutch of florida blue babies... was impossible. I had a male concinnus baby that defied all odds. The FL blue baby tails were all identical. And I have one heck of a trained eye for detail... I have customers that want accurately sexed pairs, and I am not going to risk my customer's dissatisfaction by making a visual mistake when I have a definitive alternative for baby snakes. When you are attempting to build and keep a good reputation at a high profile level... you just don't attempt to sex your babies by eye. You WILL make mistakes. I have seen baby garters and thought, that one has got to be a female, there's nothing in that tail! only to have a set of hemipenes pop out. That's why I pop clutches 3 times over the course of a few weeks to iron out any errors I have made. Usually I end up finding I have one more male than I thought or something like that. For the first popping, I always do it twice, I pop them, get a ratio count, mix them up and do it again. If I get the same ratio, then I know that's as good as it could possibly get! And then I know I am good to go.... and I have not once had to apologize, or send an extra snake out at my cost, to anyone for sending them the wrong sex

(thank god, because shipping is expensive)

+1!

[Snakeknot]

Now I know absolutely NOTHING on accurately sexing snakes. But from my experience, it seems to be its own science. I trust people more experienced than me to do the sexing. I know I bought a sand boa as a 2 yr old from a lovely older couple who have been working with snakes for years. They assured me it was female. I believed them, especially as the snake in question kept growing and growing and sand boa females are known to be much heftier than males. But Dr. Feinsod probed the boa as male. Shocked the H*** outta me! I SOOO wanted my first breeding experience to be with this one individual snake. She/He was and still is, my favorite sand boa. But now I'm gonna have to save my pennies for a REAL female. Do I think the couple that sold me this snake misrepresented the boa? No. It was just a simple mistake and I would be more than happy to buy from them again.

I just want Dr. Feinsod to be with me when I find a female!

Devon

[ConcinusMan]

If you can't get a confirmed baby male to pop then you either aren't doing it right or it's a female.

Well, I was talking about adults. Some of those guys just won't pop even though I know they are male by watching them breed. It happened to redspot a few days ago too. Adult male just wouldn't pop. But this discussion is about babies anyway. They pop easily.

But seriously you gotta stop saying that visual is 100% accurate and there is no need to pop ever. Because I am constantly seeing people make more mistakes when they don't do it.

I never said that. I just said that visual and/or scale counting has always worked for me, and mainly I'm talking only with concinnus and the reason I know it works for me is that they were always confirmed by popping, probing, or actual breeding. And of course, there's always a baby or two that you're just not sure of and they cannot be sexed visually.

[redspot]

I've been 100% accurate on selling a LOT of baby snakes. Right off the bat I visually sex them with I'd guess a 99% accuracy rating. I then pop them with a 80% accuracy conformation, then I probe them to make sure I have my bases totally covered.

If you plan on selling snakes it's as much your responsibility to accurately sex them as it is to have them feeding, arriving safe and in good health.

[mtolypetsupply]

I'm not having much luck popping my babies. I can pop baby corns, but it's not working well with these garter babies. There's no way I got ALL females! LOL!

Any tips?

[BUSHSNAKE]

keep practicing! youll get it, try on a known male first, bend... sqeeze

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I'm not having much luck popping my babies. I can pop baby corns, but it's not working well with these garter babies. There's no way I got ALL females! LOL!

Any tips?

Stephi, bring the babies to the hamburg show on august 7th and I will be glad to pop them for you and help you get a handle on how to do it!

[Atlas511]

BACK TO MY MAIN QUESTION.. How do you not crush the babies when trying to sex? gentle hands or not!

[ConcinusMan]

I think somebody would have to post a video. It's something you have to see.

[mtolypetsupply]

It's easy to tell if you get them to "give it up". I told Shannon earlier, I have a Blizzard Radix female with loose morals. Girlfriend let it all hang out with no forcing. DEFINITELY a female!!!!!!

My Fl. Blue babies are sworn to secrecy. Bending them is near impossible, they're tighter than a frog's butt.

Looking at the positive side, at least my Blizzard Girl trusts me!!!!
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