With any kind if intrusive method, damaging the snake can occur if done improperly. When probing female snakes, which probe very shallow, you can ram the probe through their glands which could cause infection that I assume could later cause them to be sterile if the infection gets out of control. In males, which probe deep, you could easily damage the hemipenes. The male cannot breed with damaged hemipenes. Also, rupturing the hemipenes could lead to infections. Understand the physiology of the area you are probing. Do it slowly and use appropriate sized probe. Some males tense up and the probe goes shallow leading to false female ID. So, probing is not a always a positive indicator or sex. NEVER force the probe in. The probe should slide in easily at the sides of the vent downward. When you feel any type of stoppage, do not try to force downward. Let the snake relax a bit before seeing if the probe of correct size will go down further or not. Try to visually sex the snakes first by looking at the tails. Female tails taper rapidly past the vent to the tip and are shorter than male tails. The male tails taper gradually to the tip and are longer. From the side view, you can even see the bulge of the hemipenes in male snakes.

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