Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello.

I recently bought a 4 months old Boa. The thing is that i don't know it's sex. I read on the net that Boa Males have noticable Anal Spurs and that in females you can barely see them.
My Boa has definitely 2 cute little legs right near the cloaca.
Is it safe to say that it's a male ???

Thx

It's a good guess but nothing definite. I have seen females with some sizeable spurs so unfortunately, the size of the spurs is not always an accurate way of sexing a boa. If you lived near us, I would be happy to sex the boa for you and/or show you how to sex it!

If you feel comfortable trying this, you can hold your snake around the vent area with the tail pointed at you. Slide your thumb all the way down the tail, squeezing with quite a bit of pressure. Since your snake is pretty good sized already, it will take a bit more pressure than when sexing a baby. If it is a male, you should feel a very distinct "bump" while sliding your thumb down the tail. This "bump" is one of the hemipenes.

Anyways, I hope this info helps...good luck!

Thanks,
Celia
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Celia Chien

Celia Chien Photography
My Snakes

www.ExoticsByNature.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornsnakeMorphs.com

I have been reliably & accurately sexing babies this way for a number of years. with experience it can be done at any stage of the animals maturity...as neonates,(prior to first shed,especially!) baby males have very little control of movement over the vestigal spurs,and,have not developed the slight reccessed "pocket" in which they tend to "retract" them...gently bending their tails to the side,in good lighting,it is quite obvious which ones are little boys,and,which are the little ladies....I have had numerous "females" from "rolling/popping/probing" hobbyists & breeders over the years,that have sired viable litters of babies when placed with "real females!" (*lol* so much for "sure things"! I have considerable experience in sexing a variety of species of snakes,including GTP's,using the popular methods available,& I can't remember the last time I had to dig out my probes for baby boas,nor the last time a customer contacted me,and,said,"Uhhm,guess what?"In my experience,I feel too much pressure is frequently needed to manually evert the hemipenes with species that have strongly prehensile tails,and,I never rely on the "rolling palp" method by itself,visual confirmation of the lack of cloacal spurs,negates anything I "thought I felt"...just my 2 beans on the issue, "YMMV"