Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a question, and this is something I probably needed to learn awhile ago but how do you probe a snake? everytime I would get a new snake I would have to ask my friend to sex it which he did by "popping" it(which he has done to hundreds of snakes) but I don't have experience doing that, and I have never learned how to do it properly, so I don't even want to try for fear of hurting my snakes. could someone give me a kind of a "how to" on probing? lol

Or just let me know if this is something I should learn from watching someone such as my vet. Thanks in advance!

With rainbowboas, YOU DO NOT NEED TO PROBE.
You can feel the ends of the male’s hemipenes at all ages.

Just start at the vent, apply slight pressure between thumb and forefinger (one finger dorsal and one finger ventral) and slide toward the tip of the tail. If you feel two distinct little bumps (like two small pinheads deep in the tail tissue) then you have a male. If you do not feel them, then it is a possible/probable female. It might help to have your fingers wet, they will slide easier…but it is not necessary.

It is good to practice a few dozen times on snakes of different sexes. I like this method because it is non-invasive; it doesn’t put the amount of pressure needed to pop the hemipenes out; and is at least 95% accurate. My little baby snakes don’t even notice what you are doing, But if you try to pop or probe them, you are asking to get bit a lot. I am all about keeping the snakes happy and stress free. I would rather be wrong one out of every 99 snakes than to piss off all 100 of them during the sexing process.

Let me know how this works. If you ever see me at a show, I will let you practice on LOTS of little babies. I show this “trick” to everyone because it is a quick and easy way to determine sex on boas.
Best of luck,
BHH
r

Ok thanks! are you ever at the shows on the west coast? I plan on going to the NARBC show in Anaheim this year. I could also practice on my brbs since I know what sex each one is. I just haven't learned how to sex snakes yet, but was planning to when I start breeding (all my snakes are too young right now), but I should be able to in about a year or so.

I'll be at the Anaheim show. I'd be happy to show you how to sex them using this technique
-----
Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

Ok cool thanks. Also does this work with other kinds of snakes (like a BCI) , or just the brbs?

Haven't tried with too many snakes. Works very well with BRB's. I've also tried with success on Ball Pythons. Doesn't work at all on Green Tree Pythons (unless my male is actually a female ). Try it on your boas and let us know. The nice thing about this technique is that you really can't hurt the snake.
-----
Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

Works with many Boids...

I have not found it to work well in pythons or colubrids...

it really is a nice Quick tool for sexing boas...

...about this a while back and I printed it out to save. i am glad to see it again because I should be practicing on my snakes right now instead of being with the forum. This is something I want to become confident in.

Linda Misch

P.S. Congrats on those hypos!

Thanks Linda,

Congrats on your little ones as well...

I don't even remember who showed me this trick, but it is a time saver and a bite reducer.....

Works great, but don't use this method while the snake is in shed because you will rub off the tail skin prematurely....

Good luck...BHH
rainbowboas.com