Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just found an interesting post over on the Burmese forum, pointing out the differences in spur sizing and position between male and female burms:

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1605927,1605927

Are there similar spur differences between male and female bloods, too?

Thanks for any thoughts!

Here’s where blood pythons are in a league of their own. In most cases, bloods cannot be accurately sexed by their spurs. I have sexed hundreds over the years and always look at the spurs and then probed to confirm. I have seen adult females with large spurs and adult males with very small spurs. I remember several adult males with spurs so small you could barely see them, and have seen both males and females with a spur on one side and absolutely nothing on the other. The only ones that I could accurately spur sex consistently were the few males that had extra large spur structures on both sides.

Probing works well with adults, and a few will allow this without much resistance. However, never restrain a blood python by hand if they are going to struggle, even with two people. They are more powerful than most other python species and can easily injure themselves, or at the very least, become highly stressed. It is best with these to wrap them up and restrain them in a large pillow case with just the tail exposed, and probe them on the floor. Most males restrained under these conditions will usually protrude their hemipenes within a very short time, so probing is usually not necessary with them. Just take care not to confuse the females smaller scent glands for male hemipenes, as many females will protrude these when restrained as well. Also be aware that large adult females, 6 feet or larger, will many times probe between 1.5 and 2.0 inches. Adult males will usually probe 2.5 to 3.0 inches depending on their length.

Kelly

I agree with Kelly, bloods and other STP's are challenging to probe unless you handle them properly. They will severly injure themselves if not properly restrained. As hatchlings, they can be popped, but you really need to get a good pop to differentiate between the hemipenes and the scent glands. The females have very well developed scent glands that can be mistaken for an incompletely inverted hemipenes.

My males won't always evert during handling, and the muscles around their cloaca are very strong making probing difficult at times. I resex multiple times until I feel comfortable it is an accurate read.
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That is great info! Thank you for sharing. In my humble collection I have experienced the same things you mentioned...males with small spurs and females with large ones. Also the females exposed scent glands can look very similar to hemipenes.....the one difference that I have noticed is the color, it seems to me that the male organs always have a much deeper purple color to them where the females glands tend to be more red or pink.
What do you guys think about using tubes as a means of restraint for sexing larger animals? I've been toying around with the idea of making an appropriate sized tube from PVC and a cap in order to double check the sex on a couple of animals before the upcoming breeding season...
Bryce

The female scent glands are smaller than the hemipenes of comparable sized male pythons. They are also of a pink coloration as the male hemipenes are a darker red or purplish.

I’ve never tried it, but tubing a blood python should be interesting. Blocking the front of the tube would be a definite requirement. With their power and advanced ability to back out of a situation, they may be difficult to keep in the tube. I would be interested to hear how it goes so please post the outcome. Thanks.

Kelly