Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When probing, do you probe at the sides of the vent, or straight down the middle? Saw a video or two on youtube but I couldn't make it out for sure--small snake, thumbs in the waya nd crappy youtube quality kinda killed that.

you can do each side if you aren't real sure too, or pull the probe out and re-introduce. Just us the correct sized probe, and be real slow and gentle.

Ya know!,...like a first-time date!..HAHAHAA!

Lubricate the probe a bit with veg. oil, mineral oil, KY, Vaseline, etc..., just use it very sparingly, you only need a TAD on the metal surface. Spinning it between the fingers as it is eased in helps it glide in super smooth too.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Look at these pics and videos, this will help out immensely!

sexing snakes

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

aaah, th ank you I was never great at probing to start with, and it is NOT like riding a bike.

And I never could get popping to work for me at all. Oh well.

Thanks for the lesson.Hope to get to practice on some this year.
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1.0 aberrant cal. king
0.1 reverse spotted cal. king
1.2 mbk's
1.1 florida kings
0.1 anery brooks
1.0 hypo brooks
0.1 albino brooks
1.1 normal corns

Be extra careful if the snake is a hatchling or juvenile. It is real easy to turn a female into a male if ya know what I mean.

For sure man!!, I cannot stress that enough!

I've seen some people do their impersonation of "Vlad the impailer", and run the female's clean through the soft tissue. I HIGHLY recommend "popping" young snakes, but BOTH methods need to be done extremely carefully as you well know, ...regardless, as you can easily crush the tissue just as easily as ramming through it too.

I know some clowns that have crushed other people's snakes before, and they soon died from the crushing trauma!!. I hate even recommending it to people really, unless they have a well-seasoned herper show them how personally. Just like any simple thing(and it certainly is), it needs to be done absolutely correctly, or major irreversible damage can happen, simple as that.

Popping a wheelie on a bike is easy too, but go too far back while going 25 miles an hour and..........$%#@!$%&*%^&!!!!...LOL!!

~Doug

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

I had a vet show me how to probe once...but that was a while ago and I've never actually *done* it myself. *sigh* I'll be nervous

I would recommend popping neonate snakes first as some newcomers tend to push to hard on the probe and females can be hurt by popping right through the stop point. You must use a delicate hand at this. be sesitive to the touch to feel the proper stopping point.

Small colubrids are delicate. Have a gentle touch when probing.

If you try popping and it pops male, you know you have a male for sure. Only probe the rest that you could not get to pop to insure proper sex. You would probe females (or males) that did not pop.

On more observation that is common with kingsnake hatchlings is.. most of the time you will be high males. Very rarely is one high females or even 50/50%. So try and go through the clutch popping and then try the ones that you could not invert the hemipenis.

Some colubrids spp are more difficult to pop than others. Some are darn easy and even a slight touch and thoses two things come shooting out. Depends on which type of king , ratsnake, etc you will be trying this.

So which type of kingsnake or colubrid will you be sexing?
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www.Bluerosy.com

"Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8".

"They that can give up essential liberty, to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety." -Benjamin Franklin

Rainer if you was asking me I hope everything in my signature except the corns.Last year everything was slugs.Hoping for a better year this time.
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1.0 aberrant cal. king
0.1 reverse spotted cal. king
1.2 mbk's
1.1 florida kings
0.1 anery brooks
1.0 hypo brooks
0.1 albino brooks
1.1 normal corns

sorry, I did not mean to repeat information. I just saw Rainer's post. oops

My rescue Brooks and my ball python. The boa's the only other one not sexed...and I'm NOT trying to restrain 30 lbs while I shove a probe in it's cloaca.

If you Google "probing a snake" you'll get all kinds of video clips. I think there is also one or more on this site as well.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/