Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have always heard you can tell if a bp is male or female by looking at the vestigial legs

No, that's what the pet stores think though. My girlfriends first ball python is a male and he has little or no spurs while the female normal we just bred him to has good sized ones. If it's a baby you can "pop" them and some people even do that with bigger pythons. I'd get someone to teach me to prob them and then but a nice round tip prob set.
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Pastel 1.0
Spider 1.0
Normals 1.2
Het Pied 1.0
Leopard Geckos 1.1
American Bulldog 1.0

Definitely can't sex a ball python by looking at its spurs. Males do tend to have larger spurs but there are so many factors that can make one an exception to the rule, its no more accurate than just flipping a coin..heads, male, tails, female...

Probing is typically the best way to sex a ball python, especially older ones. Hatchlings can be popped and there is debate on the wisdom of popping older ball pythons. For either methods though, it is always best to research and have somebody you trust show you the technique. There are a few vids on the process on youtube though.
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PHLdyPayne

To see a demo, and hear an explanation, if you do a search on "youtube" for "Ball Python Sexing", or "Sexing Snakes", something should come up. Or just search for "Snake Bytes".