Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have read about and understand the procedure in depth of sexing a snake with probes. I have even read to practice on dead animals (seriously?) or have an expert show you how. My question is, i realize that it can be dangerous but how delicate of a procedure is it? Is the warning out there just for people who would not do it slowly and gently and use common sense? What are the risks and specific injuries that can occur?

With any kind if intrusive method, damaging the snake can occur if done improperly. When probing female snakes, which probe very shallow, you can ram the probe through their glands which could cause infection that I assume could later cause them to be sterile if the infection gets out of control. In males, which probe deep, you could easily damage the hemipenes. The male cannot breed with damaged hemipenes. Also, rupturing the hemipenes could lead to infections. Understand the physiology of the area you are probing. Do it slowly and use appropriate sized probe. Some males tense up and the probe goes shallow leading to false female ID. So, probing is not a always a positive indicator or sex. NEVER force the probe in. The probe should slide in easily at the sides of the vent downward. When you feel any type of stoppage, do not try to force downward. Let the snake relax a bit before seeing if the probe of correct size will go down further or not. Try to visually sex the snakes first by looking at the tails. Female tails taper rapidly past the vent to the tip and are shorter than male tails. The male tails taper gradually to the tip and are longer. From the side view, you can even see the bulge of the hemipenes in male snakes.

The probe should be cleaned with anitbacterial soap or wiped down with alcohol and allowed to dry prior to use. Then lubricated lightly with KY jelly or other suitable non-petroleum based lube.

The most common mistake is actually using a probe that's too small for fear of difficulty or injury of using one of the appropriate size. If you use a probe that's too small it can actually penetrate the females sexual organs and give you a false reading and/or of course injure the snake. I don't find it difficult to probe and you don't need a lot of experience to start trying but I would highly suggest seeing someone do it at least once before trying yourself. If you know someone that knows how to than have them show you on some different sized snakes. You'll soon discover that the most difficult part will be controling the rest of the snake or even holding the tail end in a nice straight position. You'll soon realize with more experience you'll actually be wanting help holding the snake.

.....because the most common thing for strong adult snakes to do is thrust forward very forcefully when they feel the probe entering their cloaca to escape it, so you have to be ready to give with them rather suddenly as they do this or they will quite literally run themselves through with the probe.

It is important to know this will inevitably happen if the snake is not held very still.

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

In addition to the other good info you've gotten, I stumbled across this site back when I was trying to figure out probing and finding descriptions of the internal structure to be a bit too vague. One drawing pretty well cleared everything up.

www.corn-utopia.com/Corn Utopia on the Web/Sexing Snakes With Probes.htm

A few other notes:

Hold the probe gently with your fingertips and do not let the end of it rest against your hand. This helps reduce the risk of impaling the snake if it jerks. If you think you need a firm grip on the probe, you're doing something wrong...

Rotating the probe gently while inserting helps overcome any clinching by the snake without having to push harder.

When the probe seems to bottom out, going slightly in and out a few times while rotating will clear up many "false female" results.
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

That's right on the money Larry!......excellent advice that is sure to help anyone out probing a snake!

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com