OK... so heres my dilema..



Out of the 4 biggest copperheads (3 to 3 &1/2 footers), the 2 biggest turned out to be males... they had slightly longer tails which were "skinnier", particularly the biggest one. The second largest (also a male) was slighlty thicker at the tail base, and not as long looking tail-wise..



but with both of these large guys... the probe slid right down into the tail... atleast 10 scales or so.. with ease..



I thought the females were usually larger in this species, tho.. does this sound like maybe i busted through there hemipenes? I am surprised the two biggest turned out male, not because of how the tail looked.. but because i thought females were typically longer/bigger ..





The 3rd and 4th largest appeared to be females. The probe would not go in deep at all, maybe 3 scales at most...



The 4th largest looks gravid to me, very fat near her short tail, the one thats slightly bigger (3rd largest) looked confusing from the outside, similar to the second largest male snake... but i probed it twice, and only a few scales deep it went..



im hoping i did this right..



Out of the 3 smaller copperheads (2 to 2 & 1/2 footers)... the two larger ones look like females, and i could barely get the probe to go in. Perhaps the probe is too thick for the smaller ones? can this happen? The probe wouldn't go deeper than 1 or 2 scales..



The smallest of the 3 smaller ones looks male to me, but he is pretty small, and i couldn't get the probe to go deeper than 1 scale.. so i am confused as to if perhaps a too-large probe size will just make the whole thing null and void..



i read that using a bigger probe is better than a smaller one.. but i just have this feeling like maybe i "missed the hole" due to and oversized probe....



the measurement of my home-made probe is 1 & 1/8 millimeters (at most), but below is a picture i scanned of the probe to finger ratio... to give an idea of its size. This is close to realistic size (unless ks.com resizes pics)



anyone who understood anything i just said, and cares to respond... your imput is highly valued



thanks

AK

[ Hide Replies ]

• Snake Probing? - agkistro, Mon May 31 12:57:29 2004
• RE: Snake Probing? - oldherper, Mon May 31 14:47:19 2004
• RE: Snake Probing? - agkistro, Mon May 31 14:51:29 2004
• RE: Snake Probing? - oldherper, Mon May 31 16:45:19 2004
• RE: Snake Probing? - agkistro, Mon May 31 17:55:08 2004
• My First Probing - A SUCCESS!!! (i think??) - agkistro, Mon May 31 20:34:21 2004
• RE: My First Probing - A SUCCESS!!! (i think??) - oldherper, Mon May 31 23:00:30 2004
• Thanks... - agkistro, Tue Jun 1 07:20:09 2004