How the heck do you sex babies?

[Selkielass]

So are there any videos out there showing how this is done?

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I suppose I might have to make one! You have to be gentle, very gentle, but firm at the same time. You just have to apply pressure in the right spot... you kinda need to roll your finger forward on the underside of the tail... hard to explain!

[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.

I do not believe that one bit. I've watched a guy pop one male after the other successfully, and then get a male that just wouldn't pop at all.

As a matter of fact, I highly suspect that my Amy is a male and Don says he pops the babies. Maybe this one wouldn't pop. When I hold her up to bright light I can see that there is something in that region of the tail. I mean, look at this:



I know it's hard because she flat refused to cooperate but every visual indication now that she's grown up some more, indicates male. The tail stays the same size for some distance after the vent. From above you can actually see a very slight bulge after the vent. I'd bet money "she" is a he.

[ConcinusMan]

This is the area I'm talking about. It is the same thickness as the area above the vent and when I hold her up to bright light, I can see there is something in there. I would post more pics but she's fighting me big time and It took quite a while to get a useable pic. She/he never fails to immediately take a position that is opposite of what I want.

[guidofatherof5]

Looks male to me. Even male in the face.
Slender, not as broad in the head as a female.

[ConcinusMan]

Funny thing is, he sent me one he calls a male but it looks female in the tail. That one has a much narrower head. I think I have a boy named Amy. Isn't that great.


Now how do you suppose this happened. I'm pretty darn sure Amy is a male. Now, either he wouldn't pop in spite of being done correctly, or there was a mix up of some kind. I've been looking for a male all this time to breed with Amy and I supposedly got one recently but now I am without a female. Grrrrr... Good luck finding a '09 or '08 female for sale. That's why I wanted to buy a female first and younger male later. Now I think I'm pretty much S.O.L.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Well the tail is kind of fat. But sometimes where they are in their "teenage" stage, they can look very similar. On my herping trip this weekend I did come across some teenage garters that I had to take a second look at and in some cases, pop to be sure. The thing is that in our hobby, these things are bound to happen. You have to learn to just take it as a part of our hobby and not beat yourself up over it too much. Sexing errors, however rare they are, happen. Whether you do have a male or a female, you do have a lovely, alive, healthy snake, and just because you can't breed it, doesn't ruin or subtract from the value of having it. There are many years ahead that your snake will be able to successfully breed. If your snake was one of a kind, or extremely rare, and it suddenly died, then you would be SOL.... but there are many cb radix floating around, and even if they are not iowa albinos, there are many other snakes that would be compatible that would throw iowa albino babies. Iowa snows, and of course, any snake that is het. I think that sometimes, we hobbyists become so immersed in attempting to breed our snakes and to find suitable mates quickly so that we have babies to sell that we forget to step back and just admire them, and be glad that they tolerate our company, and whether or not they ever breed for us should be the icing on the cake... not our main focus or reason for keeping them. So my dear, I would say you are far from being SOL.