Learned how to POP them- and question and a POPPING tip!

[mtolypetsupply]

Finally got my Florida blue babies to pop! I''m pretty happy about it! In the end, Ernestine had 7.6! Pretty even ratio! I *KNEW* they weren't all girls! LOLOL!!!!!

For those of you who can't get them to do it or have never tried before, I have to say, I had to push on them way harder than I originally thought I would.

Now here's the tip: Their cloaca and genitalia seemed much more relaxed and cooperative after a nice little soak. If you have uncooperative babies, throw them in some water for a while, and try again.

In addition, the babies are now slipperier, and you'll HAVE to hold them tighter. So you'll get more pressure without even trying!

Now, I can't get my radix babies to even relax enough to pull back the vent scale. No swim helped, nothing. Is it they're older and stronger? Just need to get them to relax more? They sure aren't cooperative!

[guidofatherof5]

Now, I can't get my radix babies to even relax enough to pull back the vent scale. No swim helped, nothing. Is it they're older and stronger? Just need to get them to relax more? They sure aren't cooperative!

It's modesty

[BUSHSNAKE]

i told ya youll get it, i bet ya think its easy now

[GarterGeek]

Is it normal to get some white/clear liquid that looks like poo to come out when popping?

[MaritimeGirl]

Is it normal to get some white/clear liquid that looks like poo to come out when popping?

yes. thats them musking you. My baby corns would do that to me while popping

[ConcinusMan]

And then there's the other 5 or so that are actually male and wouldn't pop.

Look at them carefully and trust your eyes. Popping is deceiving. It can confirm suspicions that a snake is male, but it can't rule out that it's actually a male that won't pop. I would separate the one's that popped from the one's that didn't, and call that group male, but I wouldn't take that as evidence to confirm that the others are all female.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

And then there's the other 5 or so that are actually male and wouldn't pop.

Look at them carefully and trust your eyes. Popping is deceiving. It can confirm suspicions that a snake is male, but it can't rule out that it's actually a male that won't pop. I would separate the one's that popped from the one's that didn't, and call that group male, but I wouldn't take that as evidence to confirm that the others are all female.

Popping is much more trustworthy than you think. If you can I have YET to have sent out a mis sexed baby snake to anyone. Popping is not deceiving. It's very accurate. I maybe miss one in 50 babies the first try, and get it right the next time.

[Jeff B]

I would agree with you Shannon.
It's good to go back 2 or 3 times after birth say every week or two and check just to be sure. Sometimes of the little runt males take a few weeks to become hung enough to get a good pop. Popping can be very accurate especially if it's checked and double checked. This year I got a little lazy though and had a snake that I thought was female and I never went back and rechecked, since I was planning on keeping her, but then I ended up selling her, and I always double check sex before a shipment goes out, sure enough she was now a he, lessoned learned, always double and triple check the sex over the period of several weeks.

[Spankenstyne]

I definitely need popping practice with these guys. So are you sliding the thumb tip up towards the vent with pressure from near the tip of the tail or placing the thumb and sort of rocking the thumb up without moving it? I've always been more of a visual sexer, palpater, & prober than a popper. I've always been worried about crushing someone's hemis lol

Probing has it's problems too with males clenching to appear female and the need to be gentle to avoid going too far while a squirmy little captive is doing everything it can to stop you from probing it. I'm not sure which is less risky with these guys.

[Jeff B]

I pop garters the same way I do corns and ball pythons, just a lot smaller scale obviously, so you have to be more careful, but to answer your question, I first bend the tail backwards to open the vent then roll my thumb up the tail to the vent with my index under the back of the tail and my other thumb above the vent roll it just slightly towards the vent as well, when the two thumbs get close the hemipenes pop out, but some times it helps to roll several times starting soft and then each roll increase pressure just a bit to kinda coax out the hemipenes, each roll they will come out further, so by the 3rd or 4th time there is no doubt that you have a boy because his hemipenes are fully inverted. Hope that helps.
Interestingly Joe Peck and I were talking about it today on the phone and we have both noticed differences among individual males for sure, both size and shape, so not all hemipenes will look identical, but tiny little red spots or tiny bumps are just female sex glands that sometimes get squeezed out. I would say an average hatchling garter snake hemipene is 3/16 to 1/8 inch long by 1/32 to 1/16 inch wide, and they usually pop out at about 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock angles out the side from center of the vent, hope that makes sense?