Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm so excited! I just bought my first BRB and I couldn't be happier. It's 156g, 30" long, and eats readily. My only problem is I don't know if I have a girl or a boy. The guy who sold it to me said it was a male, but when I probed to be sure, I measured only four scales deep. I'm used to sexing ball pythons, so I'd like another opinion on this. I'll have pics up soon. Thanks in advance for the help.

Jaime,
...If the probe is ALL the way in then you almost surely have a female. The problem is that these snakes have very strong muscles in their tails and can resist the insertion of a probe. The smaller the probe the easier to get it in but it also is easier to injure a snake with a smaller probe. Most females probe two or three scales deep. I am careful when probing and always find more "females" during the first attempt at probing a litter and go back and reprobe all that did not probe too deeply and usually find that some of them will probe 8 to 11 scales on the second try which identifies them as males. I do occasionally find one that probes 4 to 6 scales deep on one side and probes deep like a male on the other side. These snakes are males and will have unequal length hemipenes (oh the shame) their entire lives.
Jeff

>>I'm so excited! I just bought my first BRB and I couldn't be happier. It's 156g, 30" long, and eats readily. My only problem is I don't know if I have a girl or a boy. The guy who sold it to me said it was a male, but when I probed to be sure, I measured only four scales deep. I'm used to sexing ball pythons, so I'd like another opinion on this. I'll have pics up soon. Thanks in advance for the help.