Reptile & Amphibian Forums

best way to sex babies any input will be greatly helpful
Thanks

Can be done either belly up or down, I like belly up so I can see better what I'm doing. Grasp baby just above the vent with one hand. Place your other thumb along the spine for support. Slide your finger tip along belly from vent toward tail (moist finger tip helps). About 1/2" to 1" down the tail, if it's a male, you will feel one or two little bumps inside the tail slip under yoru finger tip. Those are the tips of the hemipenes. Commonly refered to as the BB's.

Here's a GIF showing it being done....

Right about the end of the colored belly pattern is where I found the BB's on this male.

Try it over and over again on several babies until you find a male. Once you have a known male you can practice on him to tweak your methods and presure applied etc.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

So do I. It's really easy and doesn't require probing or "popping" anything

Amie

That is a great info...Thanks alot..

I agree...
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Richard Ceniceros
Tap or take a nap

It's so quick and easy once you learn it, you'll be surprised how many animals at shows you can find that are mis-sexed. I've told vendors before, and not one has ever changed the labeled sex.

and that same GIF that you posted a few months or so back, I now use that to sex my babies too! I am so grateful! I had so much trouble finding the 'passage' on the males sometimes while probing because I was so scared I'd hurt them, then I tried palpating them later and if I found bb's I knew to try again; subsequently I'd try probing them again and would then find the right depth.
I am glad to have another option, but almost wished I was doing it wrong because I ended up having so many males in my most recent litter of albinos! LOL!
Thanks again Dave!
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Steph S.
Boas...
1.1 Albino boas (Loki & Hope)
1.4 07 Het. albino boas (Petty & Lady,Sierra,Madeline,Lola)
0.1 Reverse stripe poss. het albino (Cookie)
0.1 Salmon/hypo (Scarlet)
0.1 Anery poss. het snow (Missy)
1.0 Anery (Reno)
1.0 Probable Super Salmontine(Kahn)
0.1 Salmontine (Sonya)
1.1 DH Sunglow (Gabrielle and Bonnie)
1.0 Hypo het anery (Don Juan)
1.1 07 Hypo pos. triple hets (Rico Suave & Pumpkin)
1.0.1 Het. Anery (Guy & ?)
0.1 2007 Mostly striped boa (Andromeda)
0.3 Normals (Ophelia, Sasha, & Lulu)
1.0 Surinames (Solomon & Surreal(deceased)
1.3 Hog Isles (Mr.Orange & Peaches, Tang, Isis)
0.0.1 Central American (Sassy)
1.0 ATB (Satan... seriously!)
Pythons...
2.1 GTPs (B., Monty & Jewel)
0.0.3 BPs (MJ, Precious, Houdini)
1.2 Carpet Pythons (Jackson, Charlotte, & Cassandra)
0.1 Blood python (Akaia)
1.2 Children's Pythons (Spot, Freckle and Speckle)
Misc.
1.1 Mandarin Ratsnakes (Jack & Jill)
1.0 Boxer/Pitt Mutt (Tyson)

I'm going to try this now! Thanks!
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Salihah
1.1 ball pythons
0.0.1 hogg island boa
1.0 amel corn
1.0 bearded dragon
1.0 collared lizard
2.1 fat cats
3.0 juvenile humans

This has been the easiest way, and very reliable. Personally I use my thumb on the underside, and slide my thumb and finger toward the tail, but its really the same.

One thing that I would suggest for "first-timers" is to slide your finger further than you would think. My friend couldn't feel the hemi's and I told him to go a little further, and he was suprised how far he had to go to feel them. Like Dave said, once you feel a male, you know that he's a male. But always double-check your females (even on different days).
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Snake room janitor

"One thing that I would suggest for "first-timers" is to slide your finger further than you would think."

"always double-check your females (even on different days)"

Both EXCELLENT points and ones I follow every snake sexing party I have!!!!

I have found that all males are not equally endowed. Some are OMG obvious and some are pee wee hermans.

And can not say it enough, re-check your "females" repeatedly. Once you determine it's a male - done!!! by default it's a female. Most sexing errors are males incorrectly identified as females.

One other point I forgot is you can use any fingertip, sometimes your lesser used fingers are more sensitive (less calloused). I typically use my ring finger.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I personally still like popping and probing. I use to breed alot of cornsnakes so the popping method is pretty easy for me, and I feel pretty confident in it. However, when I have any questions at all, out comes the probes, the alky, and the vaseline. Donr properly I think probing is as close to 100% as you can get.

I agree, with proper training, tools and experience, probing is likely the closest method to 100% short of raising them up and see which ones have babies.

Problem is, IMO, probing is a delicate procedure that really requires proper training by someone who knows what/how to probe. NOT someting you can easily watch a vid or read a post and be able to safely perform.

I personally have not had the opportunity to be trained on the safe usage of probes. Closest I got was a friend coming over to probe a subadult and that was not easy or clear results. Later determined to be a male and was likely clenching its muscles tightly against the probe.

I have been shown/trained how to pop and while it does seem to work very well, I can't help feel that it's invasive and still has possibility of damaging organs etc.

Palpation was shown to me by a friend and I was unable to feel the bb's. Admittedly was shown a different way, sliding both finger and thumb and I could feel vertebrae moving so was a little chicken. Much later tried it my own way as described and was quite successful. So been doing it that way ever since. Even trained my daughters how to palpate and get some help sometimes.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Dave, I guarantee you that you could teach yourself to probe a snake. I taught myself, and to be honest, it is alot easier then what most think it would be. I agree not everyone should try it, and its not something for the newby to do, but someone with experience in proper handling can do it. The thing I did was, way back in the day took a large bunch of adult corn snakes that I knew the exact sex of. I probed them, and probed them again to get the exact feel as to what each was. By using the proper sized probe, and a bit of Vaseline, you will find it little to no problem. The thing is to just be very easy in insertion. Do not really do any pushing of the probe, you will know when it bottoms out. In males it almost feels like it doesn't, but you will know a male just because they go in pretty far, you will be amazed how deep some males probe. Again, I do believe that someone should be taught, but I also believe an experienced snake man like yourself would truly have no problem.

The palpation method is pretty easy on boas (bci/bco/etc.) but isn't as easy on other species such as ball pythons, dumerils (spur presence is enough here however), so it is not the end all method. And Dave, probing is honestly pretty easy.

Thanks guys i will try that after they shed
im curious to know outta my 17 babies how many are male and how many females... Again thanks