Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 3 balls, 2 females 1 male
Recently I was told I can 'sex' by looking at the tails,
This is false right?
Only way to sex is either a probe or a pop?

im not 100% sure but males should have longer tails, and females have longer ones. Thats is what ive heard from different people but thats not an exact way to tell. a probe or pop would tell you exactly what it is. its really hard to tell when their babies and inexperienced. i cant tell which one of my snakes is male or female just by looking at their tails. true story i have 4 pastels and i mixed the only male i have with a female, and could tell the difference for anything in the world!!!!! So i popped it and could tell right away..

When babies hatch I usually guess their gender before popping them and I'm right more often than I'm wrong, but I would never sell a snake with out popping them. When they're older they have more muscle control and it's harder to do so I try popping first if it's not 100% conclusive I probe for reassurance. This also takes cooperation from the snake. If the snake isn't relaxed the probe wont fully insert and you may think you have a female when you just have a stubborn male. It just takes practice. Good Luck Chris Hall

you can't tell what the sex is of a ball python just by looking at the length of it's tail or by it's spurs. different snakes have different methods of sexing......and for ball pythons it's by either probing or popping.

.....for popping it's the preferred method for hatchlings.

.....for probing it's the preferred method for adults.

.....and for sub-adults either or works well.

take what info you see on here with a grain of salt....some people really don't know what they are talking about somtetimes.

i put up a tutorial on how to pop and snake, you may find it of interest.

Popping a snake tutorial

Pitoon

>>I have 3 balls, 2 females 1 male
>>Recently I was told I can 'sex' by looking at the tails,
>>This is false right?
>>Only way to sex is either a probe or a pop?

-----
Homepage
My BLOG
2010 European Shows

Great thanks guys.
I 'know' how to pop, however always feel like I am being to aggressive and harmful when I try, so I quit trying. I will give it another attempt when/if I get babies.

The guys i was speaking with keeps masses of Corn Snakes, and he said he is 100% able to tell with certainty. I guessed it was a species difference. At least now I know the 'pros' maybe able to....
But as an amateur, I got no chance lol.