Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am a science teacher and looking to breed my creamsicle with another science teachers much larger ?????? corn snake. It is bright orange and dark Red. I am assuming his is a female and mine is male. We dont know of anyone in the area that can probe for us and we are not real comfortable doing it. Anyway, we are thinking about giving it a try and if they dont mate then we assume they are the same sex. They are so different in size it isnt funny so we assume they are not the same. Mine is about 4 years old and his closer to 6-7 years. We are looking for any advice before we start mating them. Any thing at all that may be usefull to us as we head down this new road for us.

thanks for any thoughts you can send my way

I'd say the biggest risk on the face of it is that they *may* both be males. This time of the year they can get competitive and aggressive, even with no female around to fight over. If the two snakes are actually male you could get some injuries, especially given the difference in size.

Don't think I'd risk it in your shoes unless I could be absolutely sure they they were male & female. Do you have a vet locally who is knowledgable about reptiles? That could be a place to get them probed.

I agree that you ought to be careful making that assumption.

Most reptiles exhibit indeterminate growth and will continue to grow as long as they are alive (we've all heard of extremely old and massive reptile specimens at the zoo that are much larger than the average adult of their species)

I'm under the impression that you can make an educated guess at the sex of the animal by looking at the ratio of tail length (e.g. from cloaca to tip) to body length (cloaca to head). E.g. if the tail to body ratio for the large snake is significantly smaller than the tail to body ratio of the smaller snake it is likely to be a female since males generally have longer tails than females.

I'd just put them together and watch them closely for aggressive behavior)

When corn snakes are adults, you can generally make an educated guess on the sex of the snake by looking at its tail. Look at the vent and watch how the tail tapers. If it tapers real fast (goes from fat to small), its a female. If it tapers evenly, slow its a male. I would suggest getting a good corn snake book before trying. Just do a little research. Try Kathy Love's book. You can get it off of cornutopia.com. After you have done some research, make sure you watch them when you put them together. I have not had a problem with my males hurting each other, even with a female present, but that is not saying that it does not happen.
If you hae any breeders nearby, or an educated petstore they may sex them for you.
good luck
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**********Misty**********
I try to take one day at a time but sometimes several days attack me at once!