Most people "suck' at "popping" adult male snakes. As Chris and Sasheena pointed out, this is normally done only on hatchlings.



As Chris pointed out, it is possible to "punch through" a female snake, making it appear to probe as male. I've seen this happen a number of times. It normally doesn't seem to really cause an issue, the snakes in many cases have still been able to breed and carry on normally, but I'm sure it ain't good. There's always the risk of infection. Ways to help avoid this occurrence are:



1. Know what you are doing. There is a technique for probing snakes. If you don't know the proper technique, then get someone who does to teach you. Very little pressure is actually required to insert the probe.



2. Always use the largest probe you can reasonably expect to fit into the inverted hemipene. This greatly reduces the risk of punch-through. I much prefer ball-end probes, as they reduce this risk even further.





One thing that can occassionally happen is a condition known as a "sperm-plug". This is an accumulation of seminal fluid that begins to dry and cake inside the hemipene and will stop the probe from being easily inserted in one or both sides. It usually is shed with the skin, so a probing before and after a shed can show different results.

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