Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can anyone here provide the scute counts for male and female Florida (or Eastern) Kingsnakes (in order to determine the sex)? And pictures of the undersides of (adult) male & female King's tails would be especially helpful, as well...

Thanks,

Tim O'Neill
Sarasota, Florida
cheltecto@aol.com

Counting scutes (scales) will not tell you the sex of a snake. I've attached a link to the Barker's website explaining the ways to sex a snake. I'd check out the rest of the site too, their site has a lott of good info, just click on the home page link.
Good luck!
-Phil Patton
Link

I know it can be done in cornsnakes, so I guess it applies to most colubrids.

Males have larger tales than females, therefore they have a higher scale count.

I just went into my snake room and took a couple of pics. I just grabbed one male and one female.

The male has a scale count of approx: 62

The female has a scale count of approx: 54

It is easier to take a pic, then count the scales LOL

Kerby...

Approx: 54

Kerby...

That you would be able to make that as a statement as in female Cal. kings have a vent to tip of tail scale count of___ and a male Cali kings has a vent to tip scale count of ______ and it would cover all the Cali kings or is that just the difference between those two? Im not trying to pick an agruement but would like to know if that really holds up.
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www.Wood-N-Snakes.com

But I will take some more counts and I will bet that there is a female range (less than_____) and a male range (greater than____).

Kerby...

Well, again according to Blaney (1977), scale counts on MOST Cali Kings couldn't be used for sexing the snake. He lists Cali Kings as having 46-63 subcaudals in males, and 44-57 in females. Where Kerby's male would definitely count out as a male, his female would fall into the "grey" area and couldn't be used to reliably sex her.
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Ace

I know it is not exact, that is why I probe EVERY TIME if I want to know the sex of a snake.

Kerby...

For the Eastern Kings, Blaney(1977) has listed a subcaudal count of 45-56 in males and 37-48 in females. For Florida Kings, he lists 46-58 in males, and 44-55 in females. So, there's too much overlap in the Florida Kings to use scale counts for sexing, but it can be effective for most Easterns.
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Ace

Is there a reason why you would not just probe or have someone else probe this snake for you to find out the sex?? Just curious??

Thanks so much for all the input and yes, there is a reason why I wouldn't just probe them (the fact is that I have never done it before so would not attempt it unless I had an experienced "prober" teach me!).

I am doing Florida Kingsnake surveys in the Everglades agricultural areas (AKA the sugar cane fields) as well as some other areas that formerly had established populations and so was just hoping there was a definitive method (scute count) so I knew my field-recorded notes would be correct. As an FYI, my recent "concern" re: my ability to distinguish males/females properly is based upon the fact that virtually every snake I've found over the last 3-4 years has been (or appeared to me to be) a male!